RWBY: Gun Sonata
by reeleffendeel
Summary: Taking place during the beginning of Volume 3, the world of Remnant is about to be turned upside down when a massive ship crashes through the moon, sending it and a hailstorm of moon rocks down upon the Four Kingdoms. In the midst of this chaos, only three unlikely heroes can help the Huntsmen and Huntresses through to the end. *NEW CHAPTER IN PROGRESS*
1. On the road to Hell

**Hello once again, dear friends!**

 **Welcome to my 3** **rd** **full length crossover story combing the world of RWBY and Bulletstorm!**

 **I have always been a huge fan of this fantastic, underrated shooter and after recently discovering RWBY, this crossover instantly popped into my head and I had an uncontrollable urge to do it! I hope you enjoy it!**

 **Here are some facts you need to know.**

 **-This will closely follow the Bulletstorm storyline.**

 **-Since this takes place on Remnant and not Stygia, the Skulls and the Creeps will be replaced by the White Fang and Grimm. The Burnouts will appear however!**

 **-Team RWBY, Team JNPR, Mercury, Emerald, and Penny will join Grayson, Ishi and Trishka.**

 **-I will try my hardest to copy the over the top combat of both sides. Suggestions would be greatly accepted.**

 **-I will also try to make these two genres mesh together.**

 **-There will be A LOT of coarse language in this fic. Just a warning.**

 **-I have not decided on pairings yet.**

 **RWBY and Bulletstorm belong to their respective owners. I do not own either of them.**

* * *

Chapter 1

On the road to Hell

BEACON ACADEMY-FAIRGROUNDS

"Is anyone else starving?" Ruby Rose bemoaned.

"I may have worked up an appetite." Blake Belladonna admitted. As if on cue, a loud growling sound emanated from her stomach.

"Gee, if only there were somewhere on campus to get food around here." Weiss Schnee wondered aloud. Looking around, she realized that she and her friends just so happened to be at the fairgrounds on their campus which held the 40th Annual Vytal Festival Tournament. Numerous students from their school and other academies from the four kingdoms were going about their business: conversing with each other, purchasing food from the numerous vendors or looking over valuable merchandise. Several Atlesian Knights patrolled the area.

Weiss sweatdropped. "Oh…"

"It's okay, Weiss. I forget about the fairgrounds too." Ruby assured her as she patted her shoulder.

"I was being facetious." The heiress corrected.

"Wha-well if you were hungry, why didn't you say so!?" Ruby exclaimed as she threw up her hands.

"C'mon! I know just the place." Yang Xiao Long said as she led her teammates to a food vendor. As they walked, Weiss's Scroll started ringing. She took it out and looked at the screen.

 _Incoming Call :Father_

Frowning, Weiss rolled her eyes and stuffed her scroll back in her pocket, while catching up to her friends.

* * *

DEEP SPACE-UNKNOWN SHIP

The quiet emptiness of space was broken as a sleek spaceship soared amongst the stars, its underbelly having a skull painted on it. The sounds of someone pleading for his life could be heard within the bowls of the ship.

"Calm down! Just calm down! You got this all wrong! Just listen to me!" He begged. "He" in question was a scrawny looking bounty hunter who looked more at home in a comic book shop than hunting dangerous criminals. His situation was made worse due to the fact that he was sitting face to face with the most wanted man in the entire Milky Way Galaxy: Grayson Hunt. A former Dead Echo operative who used to be employed under the Confederation until he and his squad mutinied.

It also didn't help the fact that he was handcuffed, had a beer bottle duct taped to his head and the pirate was unbelievably drunk.

Grayson's partner, Rell Julian, handed him another bottle of beer. He too was just as inebriated as him. "Have another drink, Gray. It'll help your aim." He slurred in a thick southern accent. Grayson downed the entire contents of the bottle, making him drunker than he was before.

"Pl-please, please! I don't wanna die!" The bounty hunter shrieked.

"Here, use my gun. I keep the sight a few inches left of target. _Challenge_ yourself." Rell snickered as he tossed his Peacemaker carbine to Grayson.

"Nice." Grayson smiled wickedly as he leveled the rifle to his terrified captive. "Look, the sooner you answer our questions the better the odds we don't miss the bottle and evaporate your face."

The bounty hunter finally caved in."Okay, stop, stop ,stop, PLEASE! I'll tell you whatever you want, okay?! Whatever you want to know!"

"What's the bounty on our heads?" Grayson interrogated, his weapon still trained on the sweaty idiot in front of him.

"You're worth half a billion per. Double after you raided that Confederate supplyliner. Sarrano himself put out the marker."

"*BURP* Half a billion? Not bad!" Rell belched.

"Maybe for you. I'm worth _twice_ that." Grayson boasted as he aimed his weapon at the bounty hunter. "Well now, I appreciate you being honest with us."

"NO! Hey, hey, hey WHAT THE FUCK, MAN?! I told you everything!"

"Yeah…but you tried to kill us. Tellin' us why doesn't earn you a reprieve." Rell pointed out.

Despite his intoxication, Grayson aimed the rifle at the bottle and pulled the trigger.

 _RAKKA RAKKA RAKKA_

The rifle jerked upwards and the bullets shattered the bottle while amazingly missing the unfortunate sap's noggin.

"SON OF A BITCH! I TOLD YOU ALL I KNOW!" The man raged. Rell flipped a switch on the wall and a glass door opened up to reveal a small room with random junk inside it.

"Shut up…" Grayson muttered as he swiftly kicked the bounty hunter into the room. Rell pushed a button near the switch and the glass doors closed shut, trapping the man inside.

" _Warning: Airlock safety breached."_ The ship's computer announced on the intercom. Another door opened in the small room, sending the bounty hunter and the assorted junk hurtling into space.

"Third bounty hunter this week. Sarrano's strokin' one hell of a murder boner, man." Rell commented.

"Let's go loot a few Confederate ships. Earn our bounty!" Grayson said eagerly as he nudged Rell's shoulder. The two of them headed over to the cargo deck exit and Rell typed in some codes on the keypad terminal beside the door. A loud buzz was heard and the door remained shut. Rell tried again and another buzz was heard.

Rell suddenly slammed his fist on the console and a dinging noise was heard as the door finally started to open…only for the console to short out and the door stopped opening halfway.

"Dammit!" Rell cursed. Grayson rolled his eyes and headed over to the door to pry it open. That's when the two of them heard a tapping sound at the other end of the room. The turned around to see the frozen body of the bounty hunter floating outside their window with a Nova Grenade clutched in his hand!

"Oh-"

 _ **BOOOOOOOOOOOM**_

The grenade exploded, destroying the window and creating a vacuum that pulled Grayson and Rell towards the opening!

 _FWOOOOOOOOOOOSH_

The two mutineers managed to grab on to some pipes installed into the walls, preventing them from flying out into deep space as their weapons were flung out of the window.

" _Warning: Hull breach detected."_ The computer announced.

"NO SHIT, LADY!" Rell hollered.

Grayson spotted the emergency bulkhead switch near him on the wall and using the pipes, he clambered his way over to it. "Stupid…bounty hunter…cocksucker!" Grayson grumbled as he reached the switch and yanked it. A metal covering slid over the broken window and Rell and Grayson dropped to the ground, gasping for air.

Grayson went over and whapped Rell upside the head. "You said you searched him!" He barked.

"Don't delegate important things to the _intoxicated_!" Rell shot back as he picked himself up. Deciding that they lingered here long enough, Grayson walked over to the debris piled behind them and kicked the junk over, sending some of it crashing into a monitor.

"Fuck! Is it just any old thing you touch crumbles into dogshit?" Rell questioned.

"Your mom survived…barely." Grayson said.

Rell seemed largely unoffended by that comment. "Guess I know how the ol' gal got that limp."

They stepped over more debris on their way back to the door while Rell had lifted up some of the wreckage to show small tunnel. "Do I need to tell you to crouch down here?" He asked Grayson rhetorically.

"It'd' be nice. Show me you care." Grayson breathed huskily.

They followed through the tunnel and finally made it back to the exit, which was still halfway open. The two of the saw, through the gap in the door, another crew member named Whit Oliver. He was the team's "father figure" and doctor. He was a slightly portly old man with greying hair and had a cybernetic eye on the right side of his face.

"You boys are-what? The door's stuck on something." He spoke in a gravelly voice.

"Step aside, Doc. I'll handle it my way." Grayson grinned as he punched the console straight through with his bare fist! The door _finally_ opened this time.

"So which one of you shitheads left a Nova Grenade on the bounty hunter?" Oliver inquired.

Before Grayson could answer they heard the alarm sound.

" _Gray! We're comprised here! I'm warping!"_ The trio heard Ishi Sato announce. Ishi was the team sniper and Gray's closet friend. A wave of energy coursed throughout the ship as it began to vibrate.

"Go for it. I'll be right up." Grayson slurred as he tried to regain his footing. The shaking was not helping his inebriation. "Any booze left on this ship?"

"Nope. But there is paint thinner in the storage bay." Rell winked as the door automatically opened. As the three of them headed over to the elevators, the ship finally stopped shaking; a sign that they were done warping. But then they heard more alarms and the intercom come back to life.

" _We've got trouble, Gray! I need you deckside, NOW!"_ Ishi yelled frantically. Picking up the pace, they got on the elevator and took it up to the main deck. Thy entered the large room with numerus control consoles and a window that offered them a view of space. Ishi was sitting in the captain's seat, which happened to be Grayson's.

"Attention everybody, your captain is on deck!" He drunkenly announced as he stumbled over to Ishi.

"I was following leads on Confederate supplyliners. Came out of warp and it was just… _there_." Ishi explained as he gestured to the window. Grayson followed his gaze to see an Earth-like planet with a shattered moon in its orbit and its sun close by. However, his main focus was on the massively gigantic, space age battleship sitting right in front of them!

Grayson, Oliver, Rell and Ishi stared in awe with their mouths agape. "The Ulysses!" Grayson gasped.

Ishi started to panic. "I'm getting us out of here! Warping to a dark matter field, try to lay low until-"

"No, we're not going anywhere." Grayson interrupted as he held up his hand. "That's the Confederation's prized warbird! General Sarrano will be on board."

Ishi shook his head. He didn't like where this was going.

"Christmas came early, boys! We got us a mass murdering piece of shit out their waitin' on us to deliver some reparation." Grayson said as he pointed to the battle cruiser.

"We're with ya, Gray! Sarrano hung us all out to dry!" Rell agreed.

Grayson smiled. "I ain't dry no more-"

"No, you're drunk! _Again._ We won't last 15 seconds!" Ishi yelled.

"You've lost yer nerve, Ishi." Grayson accused.

"I honor my oath to serve you, despite your recklessness, but this? I will not die for _your_ revenge, Gray!" Ishi argued.

" _Our_ revenge." Grayson snarled.

"Ulysses wants to open a communication channel." Oliver informed them from his console.

"Arm forward cannons. They'll get the message!" Grayson ordered. A dull hum echoed throughout the ship as the plasma cannons charged to full power.

"Any of you want to mutiny, now's the time." Grayson told his crew. Rell eagerly got on his console while Ishi begrudgingly went over to his. "No? THEN FIRE!" Grayson yelled.

 _PAKOOOOM PAKOOOOM PAKOOOOM PAKOOOOM_

The cannons roared to life and bolts of plasma pelted the Ulysses with devastating explosions that ripped apart the hull of the massive battle cruiser!

"Come on, guys! Let's make Sarrano wish he'd _triple_ that bounty!" Grayson cackled in maniacal glee as he got on his console.

* * *

VALE-ROOFTOPS

"So how is Team RWBY doing?" Cinder Fall asked as she sat upon one of the many rooftops of Vale.

"They're definitely in high spirits after their victory." Mercury Black informed her.

"They're in high spirits 24/7." Emerald Sustrai groused, folding her arms.

"So I've noticed. Do we know who will represent?" Cinder inquired.

"We do. They voted on Weiss and Yang." Emerald confirmed.

"Interesting…this will be perfect." Cinder mused. "Team JNPR's fight will begin soon. You two go on ahead to the colosseum, I need to check on the little 'present' I uploaded into the CCT."

Mercury and Emerald nodded. They hopped back down the building without anyone noticing and walked to the airport so they could catch a ride to the Amity Colosseum.

"Wanna get some popcorn while we're there?" Mercury asked.

"Never in a million years. That crap goes straight to my thighs." Emerald said.

"More for me." He shrugged.

Meanwhile, Cinder had gotten out her Scroll and tapped a few buttons. A red screen appeared with a black chess piece in the center. She smiled. Everything was going according to plan. Looking up to the Cross Continental Transmit System, she knew that it would only be a matter of time before Vale and Beacon Academy would fall. Her mistress would be so pleased-

Something caught her eye. She looked to the shattered moon far away in the sky. She noticed that at certain intervals, there would be brief flashes appearing near it…

* * *

REMNANT'S ORBIT

"BWAHAHAHAHAHA! WHAT'S THE MATTER, SARRANO? I THOUGHT YOU WOULD PUT UP A BIGGER FIGHT THAN THIS!" Grayson laughed as he and his crew continued to fire their cannons at the Ulysses.

In the span of a few minutes, both ships had inflicted heavy damage upon each other despite the differences in size. The Ulysses had multiple hull breaches and fire spreading throughout the ship while Grayson's class D Specter had multiples holes bored though it.

Grayson swung the ship around for another firing run when several hidden laser turrets from the Ulysses opened fire and landed several blows that destroyed the plasma cannons and crippled the ship! Grayson's console started to short out.

"Aw shit." He muttered. Ishi rushed over to him.

"GET IT TOGETHER! _MOVE!"_

 _ **KABLAM**_

"ISHI!"

* * *

"Yeah, don't sweat it! We've all faced way worse before." Yang assured Team JNPR.

"Let's see: Grimm invasions, violent extremists, a destructive sociopath..." Blake counted.

"And that's all while we were still in training! Oh, imagine what it will be like when we graduate!" Ruby squealed happily.

"Maybe then I'll be able to pay for a meal." Weiss grumbled, still fuming over her declined credit card.

* * *

"C'mon Ishi! Wake up! ISHI!" Grayson pleaded as he tried to shake his friend awake. Grayson was suffering from double vision and he couldnt see well at all. He could spot some of his friends lying motionlessly on the floor and he could barely make out Ishi covered in blood. Sparks and explosion were going off around him as alarms blared throughout the main deck.

Grayson looked out the front window to see the damaged Ulysses right before him. His gaze shifted to the main console. He gritted his teeth in rage as red started to cloud his vision. "Okay…. _fine_."

* * *

" _Would Team JNPR please report to the battlegrounds immediately."_ Professor Peter Port announced on the intercom.

" _Yes! Like they were scheduled to several minutes ago!"_ Came the voice of Doctor Bartholomew Oobleck.

"Well, it looks like this is it." Pyrrha Nikos said as she and her friends walked away from the food vendor.

"Go get 'em!" Ruby cheered after them as she gave them a thumbs up.

* * *

"We were all dead men anyway. Dead for _years_ now." Grayson growled as he crawled his way over to the main console, his eyes focused on the main Warp Drive lever. "Just needed to do this one last thing. Just had to make sure we didn't go to Hell alone, General. Gonna take you….gonna take every last _motherfucking_ one of you with us."

* * *

"Do you think they'll be able to pull through?" Weiss wondered. "Jaune looked _really_ close to retching."

"Hopefully he'll be able to hold it in." Blake said. "Besides, they've come a long way in these past few months."

* * *

"And a sudden plunge in the sullen swell. Ten fathoms deep…"

* * *

"Blake's right! I'll be rooting for them all the way because I know they can win!" Ruby agreed optimistically.

"Couldn't have said it any better myself!" Yang said as she ruffled her giggling sister's head. "Besides, what could possibly go wrong?"

* * *

"On the road to Hell."

 _WHACHUNK_

Grayson pushed the lever forward, instantly activating the Warp Drive. The ship rocketed straight towards the Uysses and warped right into the center of the warship causing a destructive explosion! Grayson's ship flew out the other side and streaked down to the planet's surface…with the Ulysses plummeting slowly behind him.

To be continued…..

* * *

 _Kiss-Rock and Roll all Nite_

Scores of Grimm prowl their way through the streets of Vale until they sense something approaching them.

 _ **You show us everything you got! You keep and dancing and the room gets hot!**_

Team RWBY approaches the horde of Beowolves with their weapons drawn and steely determination in their eyes.

 _ **You drive us wild, we'll drive you crazy!**_

The vicious horde of nightmarish horrors charged towards the young girls as they got into a battle stance.

 _ **And you say you want to go for a spin! The party's just begun, we'll let you in!**_

Blake swung from the lampposts with Gambol Shroud as she slices any Grimm that leapt towards her. Yang mercilessly pummels them left and right with explosive shots from Ember Celica. Weiss gracefully bounds across the battlefield as she pierces the skulls of Beowolves with Myrtenaster.

 _ **You drive us wild, we'll drive you crazy!**_

Ruby decapitates several Ursa's with Crescent Rose until a Beowolf charges towards her. Ruby shifts her weapon into its sniper rifle configuration until a whip of blue colored energy suddenly coiled around the Grimm's neck and pulled it into a broken lamppost, gruesomely impaling it.

 _ **You keep on shoutin', you keep on shoutin'!**_

The whip belonged to Grayson Hunt who was armed with a Boneduster shotgun. Beside him was Ishi Sato with his HeadHunter sniper rifle and Trishka Novak with her Peacemaker carbine.

 _ **I wanna rock and roll all night, and party every day! X2**_

The Grimm turned their attention to their new prey and rushed over to them. Grayson kicked a Beowolf right in its face, sending it crashing into its comrades. Grayson smiled as he began blowing them apart with his Boneduster. Ishi slams his robot fist into an Ursa's skull, killing it instantly. The cyborg jumps atop its corpse and fired his HeadHunter at a flock of approaching Nevermore. The bullet guides itself right through the entire flock's skulls as they plummet to the ground. Trishka mowed down several Beowolves and charged up her Peacemaker to fire a lance of orange colored energy straight through an Ursa, reducing it to a charred skeleton.

 _ **You keep on sayin' you'll be mine for a while! You're lookn' fancy and I like your style!**_

A legion of snarling Burnouts advance upon a contingent of White Fang soldiers as they wildly opened fire upon the mutants.

 _ **You drive us wild, we'll drive you crazy!**_

Cinder gazes upon the resulting carnage from atop of a building and she turns around to see an unseen figure approach her. She narrows her eyes.

 _ **You show us everything you got! Baby, baby that's quite a lot!**_

Qrow Branwen and Winter Schnee stand back to back with each other as Burnouts encircle them. Qrow flashed Winter a wily grin as she rolls her eyes in annoyance.

 _ **And you drive us wild, we'll drive you crazy!**_

As an army of Burnouts make their way to Beacon Academy, they see dozens of Huntsmen, Huntresses, Atlesian soldiers, Knights and Paladins standing ready to do battle.

 _ **You keep on shoutin', you keep on shoutin'!**_

Hundreds of Heavy Echo soldiers march though a burning city with General Victor Sarrano up front, grinning evilly.

 _ **I wanna rock and roll all night, and party every day! X8**_

Grayson's team, as well as Team RWBY, JNPR, Mercury, Emerald and Penny Polendina charged towards a horde of Grimm without fear. Dozens of Grimm fell before the group of trained warriors, standing no chance against their combined efforts. Suddenly, a Deathstalker plows its way through the Grimm and advances upon the group! Grayson lassos its stinger and forces it straight into its own head. Ruby jumps off Grayson's shoulder and swings her scythe downward, cleaving the Deathstalker's head in two. The group turns to see dozens of Burnouts stampeding towards them! Grayson and Ruby look at each other and smile, ready to take on another challenge alongside their comrades.

 **RWBY: GUN SONATA**

* * *

"This shit's gonna have nuts in it!"

-Deadpool

 **Don't forget to review but don't please don't flame!**


	2. Bad Times

**You asked for it, you got it! Here's chapter 2!**

 **Review Time!**

 **Big Smoke: An excellent question! That will be revealed in future chapters and believe me, the answer will blow you away!**

 **37: Honestly, I was going to include Duke instead of Grayson but since most of the cast are teens, it would be kinda uncomfortable. Also, if you played the game, you should already know the answer to that.**

 **Guest #1: RWBY has been one of the greatest viewing experiences of my life! Can't say the same for Red versus Blue, probably because I'm not a Halo guy. Don't worry; it won't slow down my other story.**

 **RWBY and Bulletstorm belong to their respective owners. I do not own either of them.**

* * *

Chapter 2

Bad Times

BEACON ACADEMY-OZPIN'S OFFICE

Sitting himself down in his chair, the Headmaster of Beacon Academy looked out to his window. It was a beautiful, sunny day in Vale and the streets were buzzing with activity. Ozpin took a sip of his coffee and sighed in content. It was nice to have some time to relaxing after so many new developments.

Looking up to the sky, he saw the numerous Atlesian Airships patrolling the city as well as the colosseum. Ozpin shook his head, slightly annoyed at how much bravado General James Ironwood was showing off with his fleet. A part of him began to think that Ironwood was "overcompensating" for something.

 _Wssssssssshhhhhh_

Ozpin stopped drinking his coffee. Turning his head to the source of the noise he had just heard, he stepped out onto the balcony to investigate-

 _ **VVVVWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHH**_

A flaming ship suddenly roared past the right side of Beacon Tower, almost giving the Headmaster a heart attack! The ship barley missed an Atlesian Airship, made a sharp left over Vale and rocketed into the distance before finally crash landing into the deeper parts of the Emerald Forest.

Shaking off the initial shock, Ozpin hurried over to his desk to contact General Ironwood while also taking note that the ship was not of any model seen in The Four Kingdoms…

* * *

BEACON ACADEMY-FAIRGROUNDS

Team RWBY stood were they were completely slack-jawed. Earlier, they were on their way to the airport to catch an airship so they could go see Team JNPR's match at the Amity Coliseum when they and everyone else saw an airship covered in flames swoop in out of nowhere and crash somewhere into the woods far away.

"Where the hell did that come from?!" Yang asked, bewildered.

"Was that one of the Atlas airships?" Ruby wondered.

"No…it looked like a completely different model!" Weiss confirmed.

"There must have been some kind of onboard explosion!" Blake exclaimed.

"Guys! Did you just see that?!" They heard Nora Valkyrie yell. She and the rest of Team JNPR ran over to them, having seen the ship as well.

"We were on our way to the colosseum when we saw that ship almost crash into Beacon Tower!" Pyrrha explained.

Lie Ren looked to the column of smoke rising into the sky far away in the distance. "Judging from the ship's trajectory, I'd say that it must have landed somewhere in the Emerald Forest."

"Do you guys think there were people on board?" Jaune Arc worriedly asked. "We should probably go help them!"

"We can't just go running off on our own. We have to at least wait until we receive permission from the academy." Blake reminded them.

"Why not do it now? It's never stopped us before." Yang said.

"I think Blake is right. Something about this feels…off. We shouldn't just give in to our impulses, we have to act like professional Hunters/Huntresses and wait for orders." Weiss advised.

"But there could be people on that ship!" Pyrrha pointed out. "We should be helping them as fast as we-"

"Look! A shooting star!" Nora suddenly interrupted while pointing at the sky. A small streak of light soared through the sky for everyone to see.

"I SAW IT FIRST! I GET TO MAKE A WISH!" Nora said excitedly as she jumped up and down. Pyrrha raised an eyebrow. "Seriously?"

"In the middle of the day? How is that possible?" Jaune asked.

"There's another one! I get a wish too!" Ruby shouted as she pointed to the sky. Another light fell from the sky followed by another one. And another one. Soon dozens of falling lights rained from the sky and down into the Emerald Forest! Everyone stared at the mesmerizing sight.

"Wow…that's a lot of shooting stars!" Ruby gasped.

"I've never seen so many!" Yang said.

But Blake, Weiss, Jaune, Pyrrha and Ren felt very uneasy about what they were seeing. There was no way this was a natural occurrence. Something was very wrong.

"I don't think those are shooting stars." Ren said, a hint of discomfort of voice.

* * *

VALE-AIRPORT

Mercury, Emerald and dozens of other people watched the falling lights plummet to the sky from within the airport terminal. An announcement was heard over the intercom. _"Due to an emergency, all flights have been canceled and today's Vytal matches have been temporarily postponed. We apologize for this inconvenience."_

As they heard numerous civilians voicing their disappointment, Mercury and Emerald glanced at each other.

"I think we should report back to Cinder." Mercury whispered to Emerald.

"That's probably a good idea." She agreed as the both of them exited the terminal.

* * *

BEACON ACADEMY-OZPIN'S OFFICE

" _Ozpin, you have to at least let me send troops over there!"_

"I need to assure the people that Vale can handle this situation, not Atlas."

" _But we don't even know what the hell is happening!"_

"Neither do I but we can't jump to conclusions and needlessly rush this. This needs to handled quietly, efficiently, and without panic."

" _But-"_

"James. All I'm asking is that you trust me."

"… _Very well. I'll see if I can quiet things down on my end."_

Ironwood's face disappeared from the holographic window projected from Ozpin's desk. The Headmaster turned to his window and saw the large trail of smoke that emanated from the Emerald Forest as well as the falling lights. Glynda Goodwitch stood beside his desk watching the sight as well.

"Where do you think that ship came from? What those lights are?" She wondered.

"I am unsure myself. Hopefully we can find out soon. Are there any Teams out there that are near the crash site?" Ozpin inquired. Glynda got out her scroll and tapped a few buttons. She then handed it over to Ozpin.

He looked at the screen and smiled. "Why am I not surprised?" Ozpin chuckled.

* * *

BEACON ACADEMY-FAIRGROUNDS

Everyone continued to gaze at the shower of "stars" until they all heard their scrolls ringing. They all got them out and saw a message that was addressed to all of them. What was most surprising was that it was sent straight from Ozpin!

 _Team RWBY and Team JNPR, you are to investigate the ship that landed in the Emerald Forest. Your mission is to ascertain the origins of the ship and rescue anyone that was onboard. A Bullhead will transport you there shortly._

 _Best of luck, Ozpin_

"Thank goodness!" Pyrrha sighed in relief. "There might still be time to help the survivors."

"Looks like this day just got interesting!" Yang eagerly said as she pounded her fists together.

"I was kinda looking forward to the next match but I don't mind this one bit!" Ruby agreed as she pressed a button on her scroll, summoning her locker. Everyone else did the same and soon enough, 8 lockers descended from the sky and landed near them. They popped open revealing each team member's respective weapon. After gearing up, a Bullhead arrived shortly after and touched down in front of them. The side compartment opened up and they heard the pilot's voice call out to them.

"Hop in! I'll give you a ride!"

Team RWBY and Team JNPR hopped on board and the Bullhead headed off in the direction of the Emerald Forest. Most of them were excited for this change in events while some of them were curious as to where that ship and the falling lights came from…

* * *

EMERALD FOREST-CRASH SITE

The only thing Grayson Hunt could see was white blanketing his vision. It was completely silent yet somewhat serene. Is this what the afterlife was like? Because if it was, then it was pretty damn boring.

" _Gray!"_

He heard someone calling out to him that sounded strangely familiar. His vision started to clear up and he found himself staring up at Rell's scruffy face.

"Wake the fuck up, boss! We got bad times!" Rell hollered.

Grayson groggily got himself up, shaking off the dizziness and getting a better look at his surroundings. The main deck looked like a warzone: everything was smashed to bits, damaged wires hung from the ceiling, fire cropped up in some places and the front windows were smashed. He struggled to follow Rell when he noticed a flaming, spherical object outside the window crash land near their position.

"Did you just see that? That was an escape pod from the Ulysses!" Grayson identified.

"That doesn't matter! Ishi's _dying,_ man! He's all fucked up!" Rell urgently told him.

"Will you two pull your heads out of your asses and get over here?!" Oliver shouted from the back. Grayson and Rell quickly hurried over to the back of the room where they stopped dead in their tracks. Laying before them, with Oliver checking for a pulse, was the horribly mangled form of Ishi Sato. The entire left half of his body was covered in horrific 3rd degree burns and shards of shrapnel were jutting out of his wounds. Half his face was barely recognizable. A large pool of blood was forming around his body while his left arm and left leg were literally hanging on by strands of sinew and exposed muscle.

"Dear god…" Grayson muttered as he began running his hands through his hair. His heartbeat began to accelerate and his legs shook. This was all of his fault. Ishi was right: there was no way they could take on the flagship of the Confederation but he ignored him and attacked it on his own impulses, all while completely drunk.

Now his best friend was lying on his back, completely soaked in blood…Ishi didn't deserve this. He was brought out of his thoughts when he felt Oliver shake him back to reality.

"Snap out of it, Gray! Ishi is still alive but I don't know for how long! We gotta get him to the infirmary, now!" Oliver informed. Rell carefully picked Ishi up and slung him over his shoulder.

"Doc, is he gonna-"

"Just hurry!"

* * *

ABOVE THE EMERAD FOREST

"This is about as close as I can get you kids. Radar is picking up a lot of Grimm activity and I don't want to be on the menu. I'll set you all down here." The pilot informed as the Bullhead began its descent.

"Fine with us! We'll take it from here!" Yang replied. The bullhead lowered itself near an open patch within the dense forest and the students jumped out of the Bullhead and the students hopped off the ship. Once they had all departed, the Bullhead ascended into the air and left for Beacon.

Looking around, the teams saw that most of the trees had been sliced apart or splintered while numerous craters dotted the ground. "Woah… did those stars really do this?" Ruby wondered aloud.

"Thank goodness we weren't here at the height of it. We would've been ripped to pieces!" Jaune pointed out. The number of falling lights had decreased on their way to the Emerald Forest so it was now safe to explore.

Weiss, Blake, Pyrrha and Ren edged closer to one of the craters to see what had fallen. The smoke had started to clear and they could see a large piece of twisted metal in the center of the crater.

"It looks like debris from the ship…"Blake mused.

Pyrrha used her Semblance to levitate the metal out of the crater. "At least we know what those so-called 'shooting stars' really are. I'm surprised most of it came from that ship we saw."

"Aww…I'm not gonna get my wish." Nora moaned.

"I don't think all of this came from just one ship. There's still debris falling from the sky so it can only mean that there's something else up there." Ren deduced.

"The bigger question is what exactly is it?" Blake questioned. "If there's still more debris then it must be an airship of immense size."

Weiss picked up the metal and carefully inspected it. "It's not any metal I've ever seen…maybe this is a new type of metal or something artificially crated. Either way, this isn't like any I've ever seen before."

"You guys don't think were being invaded by aliens, do you?" Ruby asked everyone. They all looked at her. "What? It could totally happen!"

"She's got a point!" Nora agreed. "There are a dozen unsolved mysteries of the universe-"

"Don't encourage her." Yang interrupted.

"The way I see it, we'll probably get our answers when we investigate that ship." Jaune advised as he pointed to the trail of smoke in the sky. "I think we should all get moving if we want to find anyone who survived."

Taking his advice, everyone headed over to the location of ship as fast as they could.

* * *

GRAYSON'S SHIP-MEDICAL BAY

Rell gently placed Ishi on the stretcher, which was basically a large slab of metal jutting up from the middle of the floor. Various holographic readings appeared under Ishi while monitors descended from the ceiling to scan his vitals and monitored his heartbeat. So far it didn't look good for him. Oliver feverishly worked at his console next to the stretcher, desperately trying to find a way to help Ishi. Another explosion shook the vessel as sparks flew about room.

"We need to be getting the hell off this ship!" Rell urgently advised.

"We're _not_ leaving Ishi! Not if there any way we can save him!" Grayson barked.

"Okay, okay! If Doc thinks we can do somethin'." Rell guessed.

"I need you to help him, Doc." Grayson pleaded. "All of those cyber patch jobs you did on the field, there must be-"

"I can replace fingers and limbs but-Jesus Christ, _look at him!_ Half his body is crushed!" Oliver shouted as he pointed to Ishi's mutilated body.

"At least try! He'd do it for any one of us." Grayson ordered.

"Maybe…maybe I could. But I need a charged fusion cell to power the bioweld." Oliver told them.

"Been out of them for months, Doc." Rell sighed.

Grayson angrily slammed his fist on the wall in frustration. "DAMMIT! There's gotta be another way!"

That's when Rell suddenly realized something. "The Ulysses escape capsules! A few jettisoned and landed nearby!"

"Wait a minute…enigines'll have cells!" Gray said, snapping his fingers. "Let's go, Rell!"

"Yesiree!" Rell saluted as he and Grayson headed out the door.

"Our boy's time is short so you two need to get moving." Oliver reminded them.

"Just keep him alive. We'll be right back."

* * *

THE EMERALD FOREST

Team RWBY and Team JNPR continued to trek through the dense forest until they finally came across a massive, rocky plateau and they could see the smoke trail coming from way over on the other side.

"Looks like we still got a way to go." Ruby observed. "Let's start climbing up-"

 _ **THOOOOOM**_

Something had fallen from the sky and crashed right next to Ruby, knocking her off her feet!

" _Ruby!"_ Everyone yelled. Almost immediately Ruby got up and began dusting herself off. "I'm fine! I think I saw my life flash before my eyes a little."

Everyone looked at the object that had landed next to Ruby. It appeared to a locker of some kind. It was oddly shaped, had a hole in the center which glowed blue and continually made weird beeping noises.

"That's definitely not like any locker I've ever seen." Yang admitted.

"Is there another team out here besides us?" Jaune asked.

"I don't think so. We're the only ones Ozpin sent out." Weiss replied.

Blake and Pyrrha observed the object, taking note of the numerous dents and scratches that it was covered in.

"I'm telling you guys it has to be aliens! That thing has got to be some kind of spy drone! What more proof do you need?!" Ruby yelled as she frantically waved her arms.

"Ruby, I'm sure that there's a logical explanation for all of this. You're overreacting." Blake dismissed.

"You're in denial! ADMIT IT!" Nora accused, siding with Ruby.

"Why do I ever bother?" Blake sighed as she shook her head.

"Don't take it too hard. We both know that Ruby and Nora have the attention span of a goldfish." Yang comforted her.

"What's your opinion, Ren?" Pyrrha inquired as she turned to him. She noticed that Ren was currently staring out into the forest, his eyes intensely focused."Is there something wrong?"

He turned to the group, pulling out StormFlower. "Grimm." He said urgently. Everyone instantly got out their weapons and got into a combative stance, keeping their eyes peeled. Ren turned to the forest and concentrated. "They're not heading towards us…they're heading for the crash site!"

"We need to hurry! Maybe we can cut them off!" Weiss advised. Everyone headed to the plateau and began to scale it at fast as they could.

* * *

GRAYSON'S SHIP

Before heading to the exit, Grayson and Rell made a quick stop to the armory to stock up. Rell had settled for another Peacemaker while Grayson equipped himself with his preferred weapon: a quad barrled, break action shotgun known as Boneduster. It was his favorite weapon and it had helped him out in over a dozen situations. He had also slung Ishi's sniper rifle, HeadHunter, over his shoulder just in case they needed extra firepower. The two of them ran through the totaled spaceship dodging falling ceilings, exposed wires and pools of fire.

"I'm gonna be candid with ya Chief, you made a bad call."

"Yeah, yeah. What else is new?"

They rounded the corner and saw the exit-

 _BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM_

" _Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…."_

Grayson and Rell stopped dead in their tracks.

"Did you just hear that?"

"Scary ass growling and loud goddamned banging? Yeah, I hear it."

The banging continued as Grayson and Rell slowly inched towards the door, their weapons at the ready. Then it stopped. The two of them took another step forward-

 _ **SKRAAASH**_

"ROOOOAAAARRRRRRRGGGGG!"

"SON OF A BITCH!"

"WHAT THE FUCK!?"

A black furred, wolf-like creature covered in bony spikes and wearing some kind of skull mask burst through the door, tackling Rell to the ground! The snarling monstrosity was about to bite his head off only to have Grayson's steel tipped boot smash it's face right into the wall! Rell quickly grabbed his dropped Peacemaker and perforated the creature's face!

 _RAKKA RAKKA RAKKA RAKKA_

Its head exploded into a cloud of black ooze as Rell kicked its body off of him and scrambled away from it.

"WHAT THE FLYING PIGSHIT IS THAT FUCKIN THING?!" Rell hollered.

"I don't know! It looks like some kind of wolf or something…" Grayson guessed as he looked at the monster's dissipating corpse. They started to hear growls from down the hall and saw 6 more creatures loping towards them!

"Crap, it bought friends!" Grayson muttered as he and Rell opened fire on the pack. Rell gunned down one of them by aiming for its legs and when it fell to the floor, blasted its face apart. The 2nd creature leaped towards Grayson but he ducked to avoid it and blew it in half with his Boneduster while it was still in midair.

Grayson spotted the remaining 4 advancing towards them and saw a fuel barrel leaning against a wall. near him. He punted the barrel like a football towards the incoming monsters! The barrel exploded, blowing apart two of the creatures while setting the other two aflame. The force of the blast had comprised the already damaged ceiling and it caved in, impaling the creatures under tons of jagged debris.

"Hahahahaha! You're like my own person rabbit's foot, boss! Rainbows, unicorns, puppies and lucky fuckin clovers spew from your ass!" Rell laughed.

"Shut it! C'mon, let's go to the other exit!" Grayson ordered. The duo navigated their way through the ruined corridors of the ship until they came to the other exit, guarded by two more of the wolf creatures! Grayson blasted a hole straight through the first one, the force of the buckshot catapulting he monster into a bundle of exposed wires, violently electrocuting it.

Rell charged up his Peacemaker and fired a lance of orange colored energy at another one, reducing it to a charred skeleton. "This is a _terrible_ way to spend and afternoon." Rell commented.

"Let's keep moving." Grayson said. The exit had been badly damaged and was sloped downward along with the hallway. He along with Rell slid down the ramp while weaving though debris and exposed wire. The finally approached an opening down the ramp when the saw one of the creatures sniffing around the exit. The wolf monster turned around just in time to see Grayson slide kick it straight in the chest, propelling it into a pile of razor sharp debris. It died horribly.

Picking themselves up Grayson and Rell looked to their right and saw an utterly amazing sight as they stood atop the rocky plateau their ship had crashed on: a lush, green forest that extened as far as they eye could see. Forests such as this were extremely rare in the known galaxy; most were cut down to build new cities or died outright due to heavy pollution. Seeing something like this in its most purest form was both amazing and beautiful to behold.

Grayson stared at the majestic sight, a smile slowly forming on his face. "Well I'll be damned…"

Rell whistled. "Werewolves aside, you picked a peach on a world to land on! I think I might build a vacation house here!"

"You can think about a vacation later, we got a fusion cell to find." Grayson reminded him. The two ran alongside the plateau to reach the crash site but kept meeting fierce resistance in the form of the werewolf-like creatures they kept fighting. After clearing out another pack, Grayson and Rell heard the voice of Oliver through their coms as they were reloading their weapons.

" _What the fuck is taking you two so long?! Ishi's bleeding out! I need that fusion cell NOW!"_

"We're under attack by fucking werewolves, Doc! They're not makin' this easy!"

" _Werewolves? Are you still shell-shocked, Gray?"_

"Wish I was. Anyway, we're killin' as fast as we can and we're almost to the pod."

" _Kill fast, shithole! Get the work done!"_

' _Why does he have to be such a dick sometimes?'_ Grayson thought. "Alright, you heard him. Let's hurry to the-"

"HOLY CRAPOLI!" Rell suddenly shouted.

Grayson spun around. "What!?"

Rell pointed to the sky. Grayson followed his gaze and his jaw fell open.

* * *

Removing Crocea Mors out of the dead Grimm's body, Jaune looked to his friends who had just finished mopping up another pack of Beowolves. "Man, the Grimm must really want whoever is in that ship."

"All the more reason to pick up the pace." Yang replied. As they continued upward to the plateau they noticed they were short one person. Looking around, they saw Ruby staring up into the sky with her eyes as wide as dinner plates and her mouth agape.

"Ruby? Are you okay?" Ren asked.

The silver eyed Huntress wordlessly pointed up to the sky. Everyone looked to where she was pointed and gasped.

* * *

"It's a real bummer the fight got cancelled today." Sun Wukong said to Neptune Vasilias as they walked down the sidewalks of Vale. "Where do you think that ship and all those lights came from?"

He awaited an answer from his best friend but he only received silence. He turned around to see Neptune staring up at the sky in both fear and bewilderment.

"What's up, man? Don't tell me you're having another aquaphobia flashback."

"Uhh…Sun? What's the last thing you ever thought you'd see in the sky?"

The monkey Faunus folded his arms in thought as his tail swished around. "Huh. Well that's a pretty deep question. I-"

"No, no. Cause' it's _THAT."_ Neptune replied as he pointed upwards. Sun looked up and his eyes bulged out of his head.

* * *

Aboard his flagship, General Ironwood paced across the command deck impatiently. Recent long range scans showed that the shooting stars were actually pieces of debris and the ship that crash landed was not of any kingdom related origin. It was making him uneasy about the whole situation and that fact was Ozpin wasn't letting him do most of the investigation wasn't helping either.

" _General! You need to come up here see this!"_ one of the pilots announced. Ironwood hurried as fast as he could to the cockpit. He finally arrived and went over the pilot.

"What's the situation, pilot?" Ironwood demanded. The pilot gulped and pointed to the sky. General Ironwood looked up and all of the color drained from his face. Years of Atlesian military training had taught him to adapt to any situation and never lose his composure.

But there was no way he could compose himself after what he just saw.

"What in the name of…?!"

* * *

Qrow Branwen walked through the streets of Vale while taking a swig from his flask. As he looked around for a bar to get drunk at, he noticed something peculiar. Many of the people on the street were looking up into the sky, gasping and pointing upward.

Qrow took another sip from his flask and looked up.

He instantly spat out his drink.

* * *

From within her personal airship, Winter Schnee stared at the monitors. Winter had seen many things over the course of her military career. Most of them were related to Grimm.

 _This_ was something she had never thought she would see with her own two eyes.

And it scared her.

* * *

"Professor Port? Is something the matter?" Dr. Bartholomew Oobleck asked. Since the Vytal Tournament was temporarily postponed, the part time announcers resumed their usual duties at Beacon Academy and decided to take a break in the teachers lounge.

So far they were both enjoying a nice cup of coffee and reminiscing about old times when Peter Port looked up into the skylight above them and balked in complete shock. Curious, Oobleck followed his gaze.

"What are you looking at-GREAT GOOGLY MOOGLY!"

* * *

Glynda and Ozpin stared upwards to the sky in astonishment and fear from the balcony. They were prepared for anything that might try to bring ruin upon Vale and the Academy but this was something they couldn't fully understand or comprehend _at all._

"By the Maidens…" Glynda gasped.

Ozpin continued to stare in utter disbelief as his coffee mug fell from his trembling hand and shattered onto the ground.

* * *

Cinder, Emerald and Mercy gazed up to the sky in numb shock. They couldn't understand what they were witnessing. Something like this was literally impossible, it didn't make any sense.

Earlier, Emerald and Mercury reported back to her to inform her of the postponed match and Cinder simply told them that it wouldn't change her plans in the long run.

But when Mercury started to look up at the sky and directed their attention to what was up there, and when she saw _that_ …Cinder knew her plans were now officially thrown straight out of the fucking window.

* * *

Deep in the woods near Vale, Adam Taurus reflected upon recent events from within the White Fang's secret staging area. So far everything was set for the full scale attack on the city and Beacon Academy. All they had to do was wait for the signal.

But Adam took no elation in any of this. They were not doing this for the glory of the White Fang; they were doing it for _her._ Ever since Cinder came into the picture his followers had been regulated into her errand boys.

He barely tolerated her decisions and plans, epically how she had Roman Torchwick take command of a sizable portion of his soldiers. And what was the result? Many Faunus lives lost in the Grimm infested tunnels thanks to that low rent thug. It was sheer luck that his best Lieutenant survived.

This infuriated him to no end. If he was the one _truly_ calling the shots, he would've laid waste to Vale and Bacon a long time ago. But the one thing that confused him to no end was why he had not killed Cinder when she came back and brutalized everyone in his encampment?

One of these days he would make that bitch regret taking advantage of him, as well as his brothers and sisters in arms. But he knew that she possessed otherworldly powers that couldn't possibly be a Semblance. He would have to pick out the right time to-

"Sir! You have to come out and see this!" His Lieutenant yelled as he burst into the tent. Adam took note of the level of fear in his voice. The Lieutenant had nerves of steel and it took a lot to make him scared. That could only mean that something was seriously wrong.

The bull Faunus followed him out of the tent and saw many of his members looking up at the sky. "What's going on? Why is everybody-"He suddenly stopped mid-sentence when he himself looked up.

His mouth slowly fell open. If his eyes widened in shock, they were hidden behind his mask.

* * *

All the way over Menagerie, Ghira Belladonna took a sip of his herbal tea as he looked though his family album. The former leader of the White Fang smiled fondly as he looked at a photo of their daughter Blake as a baby. As Ghira wished she had found some good friends over in Vale, a loud sound suddenly caught his attention!

 _CRASH_

Sliding open the door to the balcony, Ghira saw his wife Kali with a tray and several broken dishware shattered at her feet. But his main focus was on the love of his life. She was covering her mouth with both of her hands and she was staring into the sky with her eyes wide with fright. He had never seen her so scared like this in his whole life.

"Kali? Honey, what's wrong?" Ghira worriedly asked as he hurried over to her. He gently paced his hands on her shoulders to calm her down but the poor cat Faunus was shaking like a leaf. One thing Ghira noticed was that his wife kept looking up.

He looked up to the sky and almost had a heart attack. He was now experiencing the same kind of fear Kali was feeling.

* * *

Wiping the sweat away from his brow, Taiyang Xiao Long headed back to the front of his house after a long day of yard work. Seeing the pitcher of freshly made lemonade sitting on the front steps, Taiyang took one of the glasses sitting beside it and poured himself a full glass.

Taking a long gulp, Taiyang looked to the sky and reflected on how much of a beautiful day it was in Patch. The sun the shining, there wasn't a cloud in the sky, the moon was-

 _PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFTTTTTTTT_

Taiyang spat out his lemonade and fell flat on his ass. He rubbed his eyes and looked up again.

Nope. He wasn't dreaming.

* * *

In Mistral, a young farmhand by the name of Oscar just finished milking the cows. He was thankful that this was the last of his chores, as they could become a little bit tiring after a while. His aunt had just recently bought him a new book that he was eager to read.

Hoisting the bucket of milk, Oscar walked out of the barn and into the bright sun. Shielding his eyes from the blinding sight, he began to walk to his house while being careful not to spill the milk. As he headed for his abode, he saw something in the sky out of the corner of his eye.

Oscar turned his head left, looked up…and dropped his bucket.

* * *

 _(Death Don't Have No Mercy-Esterly)_

Everyone across Remnant was looking up at the sky. Every living soul was witnessing an event that would forever be etched into their minds forever.

An utterly _gigantic_ airship, one that outclassed anything Atlas could ever build, was slowly descending down from upon the atmosphere and straight into the moon!

 _ **KRRRRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMM**_

The ship smashed headlong into the shattered moon, plowing straight through it like it was made of tissue paper! The force of the collision sent dozens of pieces of the moon flying outward towards Remnant! Some of the smaller pieces burned up in the atmosphere but the bigger pieces plummeted down upon the planet! Chunks of moon rock, big and small, crashed into the ground with terrifying force as each impact rattled the landscape. All over the planet, the lunar debris smashed into cities, villages and forests causing untold chaos and destruction throughout Remnant. No Kingdom was safe, it was like the apocalypse.

Pandemonium swept through Vale as dozens of citizens ran for cover as the city was pelted by a hailstorm of burning rocks. Buildings were smashed apart and Atlesian Airships were knocked out of the sky.

"EVASIVE MANUVERS!" Ironwood shouted to the pilot. The flagship swerved throughout the sky as it dodged the rocks but was eventually clipped when one smashed the right wing.

"WE'RE GOING DOWN! BRACE FOR IMPACT!" The pilot yelled. The ship spiraled through the air as it plummeted down into the city! It crashed through the streets as it skidded down the road while plowing through numerous buildings!

Within the prisoner bay, Roman Torchwick found himself being bounced off the walls of his cell like a pinball. "OW! ARGH! OW! OW! OW! OOF! D'OH! WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK?! OW!"

A larger piece of the moon collided with the Amity Colosseum, sending the structure thundering into the forests near Beacon Academy! The resulting shockwave knocked out power for half the city though Beacon and the CCT Tower were the only ones with power due to their emergency generators.

It was a disaster on an unprecedented scale.

And all while this was happening, the ship was heading straight towards Beacon!

* * *

EMERALD FOREST-CRASH SITE

"I don't freakin believe it!" Grayson gasped! "We took down the Ulysses!"

"Ishi's gonna be real happy when he hears that!" Rell said jovially.

The two of them quickly climbed up to a better vantage point while dodging the falling moon rocks. They finally got to a better view of their surrounds atop the plateau and they saw, to their surprise, a sprawling city!

"What the hell? Am I seeing things?" Rell asked as he rubbed his eyes.

"But…how? There aren't supposed to be any colonies out here." Gray said he looked at the ships floating above the city. Speaking of ships, the two of them saw the Confederation's flagship slowly descend down upon the city.

"I _really_ hope no one is living there." Grayson gulped. The Ulysses drifted downward but then started to slowly ascend upwards, barely missing the tower like structure. The bottom of the ship then opened up and started to drop dozens of large containers as it cleared the city, banked right and hovered over the forest all while still dropping the containers.

"The fuck are they doin'?" Rell questioned.

"Looks like their dropping most of their cargo…oh, FUCK!" Grayson realized. "They're dumping it so they can lighten the load! _Sarrano's trying to take off!"_

The floating goliath started to soar upwards into the sky, its engines emanated a dull hum as it prepared to warp away-

 _ **BAAAFFFFFFFFFOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM**_

The Ulysses never got the chance as the warship's rear engines exploded into a massive fireball as it fell from the sky!

"AHAHAHAHAHA! SERVES YOU RIGHT, SHITLICKERS!" Grayson laughed.

"BOOYAH, BITCHES!" Rell joined in.

The ship sailed right over their heads as it soared above the plateau!

* * *

EMERALD FOREST-OTHER SIDE OF PLATEAU

It was really hard to describe what Team RWBY and Team JNPR were feeling at the moment. So far their reactions had been one of amazement, shock, fear and disbelief.

Amazement at the sight of the ship.

Shock when it crashed through the moon.

Fear when the moon rocks descended upon Vale City and Beacon Academy.

And disbelief as it soared over their heads!

The force of the speeding vessel near knocked the Huntsmen and Huntresses off their feet as they grabbed onto the rocks for dear life as the gust of wind threatened to blow them away. The ship continued to drift downwards to the farthest reaches of the Emerald Forest while still dropping containers from underneath its hull. The ship seemingly disappeared from sight as it finally crashed landed into the dense woodlands out in the distance.

 _ **WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM**_

The impact shook the entire forest and released a shockwave that nearly made the whole plateau crumble. As the Teams picked themselves up, they quickly moved into a nearby cave to avoid the lunar boulders still falling from the sky. Most of them had to sit down and catch their breaths while the rest of them were trying to process what the hell just happened.

After a few seconds of silence, Ruby suddenly exploded.

"SEE?! SEE?! I TOLD YOU! ALIEN INVASION! NO ONE LISTENS TO ME!"

To be continued…

* * *

 **Looks like Remnant is in for some pretty wild shit!**

 **For those of you who are wondering, let me confirm that the mighty Hekaton will appear on Remnant but as a Grimm! Also, the locker object that crashed next to Ruby is the Dropkit from the game.**

 **Anybody have any ideas for Skillshots?**

 **Don't forget to review but please don't flame.**


	3. Desolation and Improvisation

**Guess who's back!**

 **My apologies for being so late, I was working on other stories and life in general got in the way. Hope I can make it up to you guys with this chapter!**

 **Review Time!**

 **37: You got a point but I'm glad you liked the chapter!**

 **Guest #1: Bulletstorm is a really fun shooter and I'll be getting the Nintendo Switch sometime for Christmas when there's a sale.**

 **NRG: I recently did 2 chapters for that story and I'm planning on finishing it! Bulletstorm is worth looking into and Sarrano is nothing like Zod.**

 **Red John: I got the Full Clip Edition for PS4 and I will keep the canon parings!**

 **Colossalblackening: Bingo!**

 **Big Smoke: Yup! Those two did not see that coming. I love your Skillshot ideas!**

 **Mastermind: Abso-friggin-lutely!**

 **Guest #2: Honestly, I just only watch whatever action scenes I can find.**

 **Guest #3: True, but Remnant ain't no picnic either. To answer your questions, the weapons featured in Bulletstorm will appear but Gray won't carry all of them. They will be given to some characters and will make cameo appearances. As for the second question, I haven't really decided what to do about that yet.**

 **Wastel007ander97: I'm glad you like my story this much and your Skillshots are excellent!**

 **Mega Super Hero: I don't have any ideas yet for a potential Titanfall crossover but something might pop up.**

 **PineappleWarrior: I'm just a slow updater is all.**

 **Junior VB: Thanks!**

 **FanGirl: Glad I was able to impress you!**

 **shadowdispencer: Ask and ye shall receive!**

 **Arkham Inmate: LMAO!**

 **God's NOT Dead: Of course I'll change it, from one believer of God to another.**

 **Writing Warrior: I completely agree with you but you can't help but admit that some of his insults were pretty funny!**

 **Titanzilla: They will have to get used to Gray's cursing! No, Duke will not appear.**

 **RWBY and Bulletstorm belong to their respective owners. I do not own either of them**

* * *

Chapter 3

Desolation and Improvisation

"It's amazing how quickly things can go from bad to total shitstorm."

-Columbus, Zombieland

EMERALD FOREST-PLATEAU

Grayson and Rell dodged the plummeting moon rocks as they made their way to the escape pod. They had several close calls in the form of almost getting hit by one but they were lucky enough to outrun most of them and the rate at which the rocks were falling had begun to decrease. They were beginning to near the crash site when they heard their coms crackle to life.

" _Guys! I just felt the whole ship shake! What the hell's going on out there?!"_

"That was the Ulysses, Doc! We took that giant fucker down with us! It plowed straight through the moon and crash landed somewhere! We actually fuckin did it!" Grayson yelled enthusiastically.

" _We did!? I don't believe it….you two do realize that we just painted a huge target on our backs, right?_

"We've had targets on our backs the day we went rouge. Anyway, I'm gonna have to cut this call short. We're nearing the spot where the escape pod crashed." Grayson said as he and Rell picked up the pace. After a few minutes, they finally came to an elevated position which gave them a clear view of the pod…and the battle right next to it!

A lone soldier was holding his own against an onslaught of the werewolves that Grayson and Rell kept encountering. The soldier was covered head to toe in a black colored Confederate army uniform complete with reinforced Kevlar. He wielded a Peacemaker Carbine with a gunmetal finish. He was currently unidentifiable since he wore a black baklava mask over his head. He also wore a set of goggles that glowed blue and a helmet with a white skull emblazoned upon it.

"Looks like one of Sarrano's new squads: Final Echo. The elite of the elite." Grayson mused.

"This assclown?" Rell questioned as he pointed at the soldier.

The Final Echo soldier dispatched 3 of the werewolves with precision headshots. One of the creatures climbed atop the escape pod behind the soldier and prepared to pounce on him but he swiveled around and shot out a glowing blue whip of electrified energy from a device on the back of his hand! The whip lassoed around the monster's waist and the soldier yanked his hand back, sending it soaring through the air and right towards him!

The soldier fired an overcharged shot at it and the creature exploded into a shower of black blood and skeletonized remains. As pieces of it rained down around the soldier, another of the werewolves charged at him from the right but he smashed the butt of his gun right into its snarling face, knocking out some of its fangs and disorienting it.

The soldier grabbed it by the scruff of its neck and emptied his Peacemaker's clip into its backside were the rounds tore through its abdomen. He kicked the body away and reloaded a fresh clip into his weapon.

Grayson and Rell had to admit, this guy knew how to kick ass. Suddenly, they two of them spotted something coming into view from the left. A massive bear-like creature lumbered towards the soldier from a stone archway! One detail that the two of them noticed was that the monster displayed the exact same characteristics as the werewolves: black fur, bony protrusions and the skull mask.

"Holy shit! Look at the size of that thing!" Rell gasped.

"Are you fucking kidding me?! This planet has werebears now?!" Grayson yelled.

The solder fired his Peacemaker at the werebear's body but the creature was unaffected as the rounds pierced its thick hide. It swiped its massive claws at him but the soldier dodged out of the way, lassoed his whip around its neck and yanked downward. The werebears head was impaled by a jagged slab of rock, spearing it straight through its chin and exiting the top of its skull!

Rell whistled in surprised at how that Final Echo trooper dispatched that thing so quickly. Unfortunately, his whistling had caught the soldier's attention and the black clad rifleman snapped his head up to Grayson's and Rell's position! The soldier aimed his Peacemaker at them while the two mutineers aimed their own weapons at him. The solder overcharged his weapon and prepared to fire-

 _ **SPLAAAAT**_

A large moon rock landed right on top of him, crushing his body instantly and sending pieces of the soldier flying everywhere. Grayson and Rell stood where they were, blinking in stunned confusion.

Rell started to chuckle. "Don't look too 'elite' now, does he?" He joked. Grayson smiled at that comment and the two of them headed down to the escape pod.

* * *

VALE-ROOFTOPS

Cinder, Mercury and Emerald observed the devastation brought on by the destruction of the moon and the gigantic ship. Craters had dotted the once beautiful city, buildings had been decimated, structures had been set ablaze and the streets were ripped up beyond repair.

Sirens could be heard all across the city as emergency crews tended to the wounded. Amity Colosseum lay in ruins just outside the city limits. Three Atlesian airships, including Ironwood's command ship, lay in smoldering wrecks within the city. The sounds of mass panic echoed for miles.

All of Vale was in chaos. Just like Cinder had originally planned.

The only problem was that it was too soon. Cinder hadn't applied the finishing touches to the Black Queen virus yet. It was about 89% done but she still needed more time. Another problem was the destruction of Amity Colosseum. She had originally planned to use that as the perfect way to make her broadcast to Remnant. It would've been the perfect way to sow negative emotions amongst the population, especially with Teams and other visitors from the four kingdoms so tightly packed into Vale and Beacon Academy. The Grimm would be drawn to the city like Rapier Wasps to red sap while Atlas' own robots would turn against the populace they were supposed to protect.

But now that the colosseum had been reduced to rubble, there would be no other efficient way to instill fear and discord on a grand level and with Ironwood's command ship disabled, Neopolitan couldn't use her scroll to upload the 2nd virus to hack the General's robotic security.

Speaking of Grimm, there would be no doubt in her mind that they would be coming here very soon. There would be no way they could resist something like this. It was too early for them to attack. Cinder's mind began to race. Her plans couldn't fail. Not now! She had planned this out for too long to see it all go to waste! Her mistress would never forgive her!

She looked up to the moon, now a crescent shape after the catastrophe. She shifted her gaze to the numerous rectangular containers dotted across the whole city.

"I'm calling it. Aliens." Mercury blurted out.

Emerald and Cinder looked at him, unamused.

"What?"

Emerald turned to Cinder with a worried look on her face. "Ma'am, do we have plan B for this?"

Cinder closed her eyes in thought and then reopened them after turning to her assistants. "There is no plan B. We can still proceed with our original goal. But the two airships that crashed over in the Emerald Forest have taken an interest me. I need the two of you go to the crash sites and see what you can learn from them. Information, equipment, devices, weapons, whatever you can find and then report back to me when you think it's absolutely necessary."

Mercury and Emerald had curious looks on their faces. Cinder decided to elaborate. "They might contain technology that might prove to be helpful in the long run. Like I said, we can still follow the plan. Neopolitan and I can take care of the rest from here."

"Understood." They both said in unison. Before they left, Mercury had one question for Cinder. "What do we do if we find any survivors?"

"I personally believe there are more important things to worry about but if you do find anyone, be they alive or dead, I'll leave the choice up to you two. Now get moving."

Nodding, Mercury and Emerald leapt down to the street and made a beeline towards the Emerald Forest. Cinder watched them leave and turned her attention over to Beacon Academy and the CCT tower. Atlas had already begun to mobilize multiple soldiers, Knights and Paladins to guard the academy and the tower. To make matters even more complicated, dozens of Huntsmen and Huntresses that were participating in the tournament were joining them as well.

Cinder bit her thumb in frustration. "I can salvage this…I can still salvage this."

* * *

VALE-IRONWOOD'S COMMAND SHIP

James Ironwood struggled to get himself up as sparks flew about the room. The force of the crash had sent everyone out of their seats and knocked out some of the power. Spotting several bodies on the floor and slumped against the consoles, Ironwood hurriedly checked every one of them for pulses. Thankfully they were all unconscious.

He went over to the main console and pressed some of the buttons to turn it back since the impact of the crash and knocked out some of their systems. To his relief, the monitor turned on and he began to key up security footage of Vale.

It was worse than he thought.

Pure destruction plagued his eyes as his mouth hung open in shock and horror. He sat himself down at a nearby seat and took all of this in. Something had to be done. He needed to know where the hell that gigantic airship, including the smaller one before it, came from. Were they being invaded by one of the Kingdoms? Impossible. Something of that size would take centuries to build and it looked too "advanced" to be built by any Kingdom. Was it made by a foreign power they had no knowledge of? It was another impossibility.

But one detail he took into account was that the ships seemed to have come from space. Dust was unable to leave Remnant's atmosphere leaving interstellar travel nothing more than a pipe dream. Could it be that they came from another civilization other than Remnant? Was there life beyond the stars?

Although the notion of that thinking was ridiculous, Ironwood's mind was made up. He couldn't sit idly by doing nothing. It was time for action and Atlas would answer the call.

"Forgive me, Ozpin." Ironwood solemnly said. He activated the communication line on the main console.

"Polendina, this is General Ironwood. Do you read me?"

" _Yes, General Ironwood! What is your status? Are you well?"_

"I've been through worse. Right now I have an important assignment for you. I want you to scout the two unidentified ships that crash landed in the Emerald Forest. Acquire as much information on them as much as possible and then report back to me when you gathered enough intelligence."

" _Understood, General! I shall move out posthaste!"_

"Very good. Is Ciel Soleil with you?

" _I am present and accounted for, General."_

"I need you to help with evacuation procedures for civilians and logistical support with our soldiers."

" _Understood, General."_

Ironwood then switched to the communication channel for the other airships and all of his soldiers.

"To all Atlas personnel, this is General Ironwood-"

 _THRACK_

Something smashed against the back of Ironwood's head, knocking him out completely! He crumpled to the floor as someone turned off the communication line.

That someone was none other than _Roman Torchwick_! The impact of the crash had damaged the door to his cell enough for him to pry it open and then pluck the keys to his cuffs from an unconscious guard. After that, he procured an Atlesian assault rifle, managed to sneak up on Ironwood and knock him out cold with the butt of his rifle.

"So sorry! My hand slipped." He taunted. As Roman made his way to the exit (which had been forcibly wrenched open in the crash) he saw something out of the corner of his eye. He looked down to see Ironwood's engraved revolver lying beside him.

"Ooooooh~! Don't mind if I do!" Roman said gleefully as he discarded his rifle and picked up the revolver from the floor.

 _ **BA-BLAM BA-BLAM BA-BLAM**_

Roman destroyed the main console and exited the ship with a smug grin on his face.

* * *

VALE OUTSKIRTS-WHITE FANG ENCAMPMENT

From atop a small hill, Adam Taurus and his Lieutenant gazed at the destruction of Vale in scilence. Other White Fang members were watching as well. They were all completely speechless. Where did that massive ship come from? Did one of the Four Kingdoms build it? No one had an answer.

Within the mind of Adam Taurus, something started to formulate deep within until it finally made itself clear.

"Lieutenant."

"Yes, Sir?"

"There's been a slight deviation in the narrative. Get everyone ready, we will attack with our full might when I give the word."

"But didn't Cinder Fall say-"

The Lieutenant's question was cut short when Adam wordlessly looked at him. The Lieutenant's heart skipped a beat. He could feel his leader's masked gaze burning straight into his soul.

"Um…I mean…of course, Sir!" The Lieutenant said as headed back to his White Fang comrades.

"Okay, Everyone! Change of plans! Get everything ready, we attack when brother Adam says so!"

* * *

VALE-IRONWOOD'S COMMAND SHIP

Neopolitan arrived at the command ship shortly after Torchwick, completely missing him by just 8 minutes. She walked through the ruined ship and spotted the main console with an unconscious James Ironwood. Ignoring him, she inspected the console. 3 massive bullet holes had ripped it apart and she shook her head. There was no doubt that Roman had escaped and obviously went to town on it. Neo got out her scroll and contacted Cinder via texting.

 _N: The whole ship's a bust. Main console's completely wrecked. There's no way I can upload the virus to hack the robots. Any ideas?_

 _C: Ironwood will most likely transfer the codes for them to another airship. Keep him alive and when he does, sneak aboard and you'll know what do to next._

 _N: Okey-dokey!_

She put away her scroll and rolled her eyes. Neo honestly hated working for Cinder. It was always "Evil Plan" this or "Evil Plan" that. Half the time that slut didn't even bother explaining what it would all lead to; she seemed to favor her two lackeys. But the biggest reason on why she loathed Cinder was allowing Roman Torchwick to get captured.

Neo seemed to favor him over Cinder mainly because she and Roman had a surprisingly good partnership with each other. Not to mention that he was smart, suave, debonair and cunning to boot. A part of her began to wonder if she should find Torchwick and bug out of Vale together, seeing as how things were going south pretty darn fast.

Her train of thought was interrupted when she heard Ironwood beginning to stir and quietly exited the ship and hid in an alley just as squads of Atlesian solders arrived. Ironwood stumbled out of the ship, not in the best of moods.

"General! Are you alright?" One of the soldiers asked.

"No. I need your sidearm." He grunted.

"Sir?" The soldier questioned as he handed him his pistol.

Ironwood grit his teeth. "Torchwick stole mine." He said in disguised embarrassment.

"Roman Torchwick!? He's loose?!" Another soldier gasped.

"We have more important things to worry about, soldier. There's wounded inside that ship that need medical attention, now!"

"Yes, Sir!" The soldier said as he and several others carrying medical kits entered the downed ship. Ironwood then turned to his troops.

"I want a debriefing on the situation at hand."

"It's bedlam, Sir. We've got dead and wounded all around the city. Emergency crews are completely swamped trying to put out the fires and helping out civilians that were hurt in the chaos. We've got no power running through the city except for the academy and the CCT Tower. Specialist Schnee just touched down along with her squad and they're aiding in recovery efforts with Agent Ciel as we speak." One of the soldiers debriefed.

"Good. Very good." Ironwood nodded.

"There's something else you should know, Sir." Said another solider. "This wasn't the only Kingdom affected by this."

"What do you mean?" Ironwood questioned, not liking where this was heading. The soldier took out his scroll, tapped a few buttons and showed it to Ironwood. The general paled.

"It's not just Vale, Sir. The rest of the Kingdoms are also in shambles. Vacuo, Mistral, Atlas and everywhere else suffered the same catastrophe as Vale did."

And he was right. The scroll had multiple feeds of the Kingdoms in a state of panic and destruction. Destroyed buildings, fire everywhere, panicking civilians, a total nightmare. Ironwood was finding it very hard to stand as his legs wobbled. This couldn't be happening! How was Remnant supposed to recover from this?!

"I'm afraid it gets worse, Sir. We've got incoming Grimm. It looked like it was going to be a Threat Level 9 but it's downgraded to a Threat Level 6."

"Downgraded?" Ironwood inquired, perplexed. It was like the Grimm to suddenly loose interest.

"Our airships spotted them before, the Grimm previously numbered in the thousands but then half of them split off and headed towards the Emerald Forest. We believe they're making their way to the crash sites of the unidentified ships. We should probably send out search parties for the survivors or else they'll be mobbed by Grimm." The soldier advised.

Ironwood thought very hard about this for a moment. "I'm afraid we don't have the time for that, not when the Grimm are breathing down our necks. And to be honest…I don't believe anyone could survive an impact like that. We need to focus on bolstering our defenses and establishing a safe zone for evacuations. What's the status of the Kingdom's outer perimeter?"

"The fortifications are fully online but a few of them were destroyed during the destruction of the moon." A soldier reported.

"Get as many men over there ASAP. We _must_ hold the line until the evacuation is complete." Ironwood ordered.

"Sir! Our communications just went down!" One soldier announced. "The debris from the moon must've damaged one of the CCT's generators!"

Ironwood gritted his teeth. "Get those generators repaired and have us back online, _now_!" He ordered.

"Yes, Sir!" The soldier saluted as his squad moved out.

"What's the status of our Knights and Paladins? Are they fully operational?" Ironwood asked another soldier.

"They've all entered automated recon and defense mode and they respond to basic orders. But if we want them to follow complex commands, then we have to get you to another airship where you can transfer the codes-"

 _ **BWAM BWAM CLANG CLANK KLUNK**_

Ironwood and his soldiers instantly snapped their head over to one of the large, rectangular black containers that the massive ship dropped all over Vale. Something was banging against the inside of the container and the doors began to rapidly crumple outwards.

As Ironwood and the soldiers aimed their weapons at the container, Neopolitan watched from the alleyway as she tightly gripped her umbrella.

She had a very bad feeling about this…

* * *

BEACON ACADEMY

"Are you getting anything?" Sun asked Neptune as his friend fumbled with his scroll.

"Nope. I ain't gettin' squat." Neptune replied, shaking his head.

"Same here. I think it's safe to say the CCT's down." Coco Adel said as she stuffed her scroll back into her pocket.

The academy grounds were abuzz with activity. Huntsmen and Huntresses were busy evacuating the students of Beacon and joining Atlesian soldiers in emergency aid within the city as well as aiding in the defense of the damaged outer fortifications against the incoming Grimm.

This left many Atlesian soldiers, Knights and Paladins to defend Beacon alongside several Huntsmen/Huntress teams. The most significant of them being Team SSSN, CFVY, NDGO, ABRN and two members from Team FNKI.

"How long will it take to get the CCT back up and running?" Gwen Darcy wondered.

"Pretty soon, hopefully. I heard that they were bringing a bunch of engineers over there. I think I saw Team BRNZ heading over to help out." Reese Chloris informed.

"Well that's some good news. Say, has anybody seen Team RWBY and Team JNPR?" Sun asked.

"Last I saw, they were at the fairgrounds getting on a Bullhead to the Emerald Forest. I think they were sent to investigate those ships." Yatsuhashi Daichi revealed.

"Do you think they'll be okay? I heard there was a lot of Grimm heading towards those areas." Nadir Shiko pointed out.

"Pffffft! Of course there gonna be okay!" Coco scoffed. "I've seen those guys mow through Grimm like they were tissue paper during the breach. I'm sure they can handle whatever's thrown at them."

Fox Alistair nodded silently in agreement.

"Sooooooooooooooooooooooo are we all not gonna talk about the fact that were being _invaded by aliens?!"_ The feline Faunus known as Neon Katt yelled.

Sage Ayana tilted his head in bewilderment. "What?"

Dew Gayl rubbed her temples. "Oh, here we go…."

"How many times do I have to tell you, girl? There ain't no such thing as aliens!" Her partner Flynt Coal told her.

"Well it looks like the roller-skate's on the other foot cuz I was right!" Katt retorted.

"Don't you think you're overreacting a bit?" Bolin Hori said.

"I'm pointing out the obvious! They must've landed here to enslave our world for their evil overlords!" Katt shouted.

"Yeah, you're definitely overreacting." Nebula Violette dismissed.

"Hmph! You're gonna eat those words when they take over Remnant and force us to work in their labor mines!" Katt snapped.

"Oh for the Gods sake…" Flynt muttered as he shook his head in embarrassment.

"If they are aliens, then I really hope they're not the _probing_ kind." Scarlet David nervously said.

"Dude! Not you too!" Neptune scolded.

"Can we please stop jumping to ridiculous conclusions and act rationally for a minuet? It's obviously not aliens, something like that is impossible." Arslan Atlan chided.

"She's got a point. The only time that ever happens is in sci-fi novels." Octavia Ember astutely pointed out.

"Same here." Velvet Scarlatina agreed. "Once we beat back the Grimm and when everything settles down, I'm sure we'll find out a logical explanation for all this. With any luck, Ruby and the others will discover the true nature of the ships-"

"GYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

The teams and every soldier, Kinght and Paladins instantly turned their attention over to one of the black containers that littered the city and the academy grounds just in time to see something drag 2 Atlesian soldiers inside it!

 _SPLAT CRUNCH SKLRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIP SHPLAKT CRACK_

The Huntsmen and Huntresses immediately got out their weapons and got into combative stances as the rest of the soldiers and robots aimed their weapons at the container. Several seconds of silence passed and then a steady flow of blood began to pour from the container, staining the grass red. Some members of the team felt queasy.

Suddenly a mutilated torso missing its left arm, head and lower abdomen flew out of the container and landed before the groups with its intestines spilling out! Velvet, Katt and Team NDGO screamed in horror while the others recoiled in shock and disgust!

"GRRRRRRRRRRRRUUUUUUURRRGGGHH!" A low, throaty growl emanated from within the container. The other containers began to shake and rattle as more grows filled the air! The doors to the containers were forced open as everyone prepared themselves for whatever was in them.

* * *

VALE CITY

Slumping up against a light post, Qrow Branwen had just finished guiding survivors to the nearest hospital. As he got out his flask for a quick drink, he struggled to comprehend all of this-

 _ **KA-CRASSSSHH**_

The doors to the black container behind Qrow were knocked off its hinges as he turned around.

And _they_ sauntered out of it.

Qrow put away his flask and unsheathed Bloodborne, transforming it into its scythe configuration as he prepared to face off against his grotesque opponents.

"Well…aren't you guys cute."

* * *

EMERALD FOREST-PLATEAU

Rell and Grayson were currently trying their hardest to pry the escape pod's door open but it was sealed so tight that it made it virtually impossible.

"Damn! That dumb sonovabitch must've locked it when he got out!" Rell huffed as he tried to pry it open again. Grayson thought for a moment as to how they could get it open. Maybe if they had a tool of some kind…

He spotted the Final Echo soldier's severed arm laying near the pod, the same device he used to dispatch the weremonsters still attached to his hand. He picked it up pried the device off the hand before chucking it away. The device was a fairly large looking piece of hardware with a blue light at the end. As Grayson observed it, he slowly began to realize what it was.

"Looks like the rumors were true: Final Echo are usin' Leashes." Grayson mused.

Rell raised an eyebrow. "Leashes? I thought instinct moderated weapons were outlawed."

"Yeah. They _were_." Grayson stated. He knew Sarrano was behind it's re-use.

"Hey, man! If that's gun power, we need it! So pull up your skirt and strap that dildo on!" Rell encouraged.

Grayson looked at the device one more time before deciding that Rell was right. What better way to combat the enemy than using their own weapons against them?

"Lets try it out…" Grayson said as he placed the Instinct Leash onto the back of his hand.

 _ **VVVVVVZZZZZZZZT**_

"AAAAARRRGGHHH!" Grayson yelled in pain as the device forcibly attached itself to his skin! He fell to one knee as he felt his hand being painfully shocked as Rell ran to his side!

"Fuck me! Boss, are you okay?!"

Grayson's world began to turn a vibrant blue-colored hue as he saw words beginning to pop up in his vison.

} DEVICE INITIATING…

} PROCESSING DNA SIGNITURE…

} NEW USER DETECTED…

} RESETTING COMBAT STATS…

} EXECUTING ASSIMILATION PROCESS…

} INJECTING NANO AGENTS…

} ACTIVATING COMBAT LAYER 0…

} MERGE COMPLETE-REGISTER AT DROPKIT FOR COMBAT ASSESMENT…

} ENERGY LEASH ACTIVE.

Grayson's vision slowly started to revert back to its normal color as he got up. "Goddamn! I could actually _feel_ that thing talking to me!"

"Well, super happy that yer okay. Think you can use that new toy of yours to pop open the hood?" Rell asked as he pointed at the escape pod.

Remembering what the soldier did to make the Leash work, he shot his hand out and the Energy Leash sprang forth and attached itself to the door of the pod. He yanked back on his and the door was ripped off the pod and sent flying behind Grayson.

"Hot damn!" Grayson shouted excitedly. He was instantly in love with his new toy! He and Rell looked inside the pod for the fusion cell and Grayson potted it under the guidance console.

"There! Snag it!"

"Oh, right! I'm just a waterhead! I forgot why I done marched out here!" Rell sarcastically complained as he yanked the cell out and stashed it in his pocket. With the key to Ishi's survival in their hands, Grayson and Rell began to head back to their ship. They went under the stone archway and went through a small canyon where they found it blocked off by a chunk of their ship that was surrounded by jagged debris.

They heard snarling sounds above them and looked up to see the werewolves perched atop the rocks! Several of them leapt towards the two but Grayson leashed them and swung/hurled them into the debris! The rest of the werewolves attacked but they all met the same fate: death by impalement.

Grayson was having the time of his life as he used his leash to send the monsters flying into razor sharp death. "Feel the love-touch, hound dogs!"

"WHOOOOOOO! Werewolf smoothies!" Rell hollered in excitement.

With the last of the creatures turned into literal pincushions, Grayson kicked over the piece of their ship and quickly made their way back to Doc and Ishi.

' _Hang on Ishi, we're almost there.'_ Grayson thought.

To be continued…

* * *

 **Hope the wait was worth it for this chapter!**

 **I consider this to be a pretty poignant chapter because it showcases just how much things have changed from Volume 3. But if you all think about it, it's for the better. (Which you will all find out in the future.)**

 **I also wanted to showcase how Mercury, Emerald and Penny will soon join the rest of the cast! In the beginning, I had a really hard time deciding who else I wanted besides Team RWBY and Team JNPR. It ranged from Team CFVY, Sun and Neptune, I was even going to have Neopolitan and Roman Torchwick join! But I felt that those choices wouldn't work out so I finally settled on those 3 instead.**

 **For those of you who still don't know what are in those containers, I'll tell you since its completely obvious.** _ **THE BURNOUTS HAVE INVADED VALE.**_ **So not only does everyone have Grimm and White Fang to deal with, they also have to fight fully mutated humans. To make matters worse, they will have extra abilities not seen in the original game!**

 **One change I made to Grayson was that his opponents don't enter slo-mo mode when they are leashed or kicked. I'm trying to keep up with the fast paced combat of RWBY.**

 **If you guys are a little bit disappointed that Team RWBY and Team JNPR didn't appear, fear not! The next chapter will have them finally meeting the Bulletstorm Cast!**

 **Before I end this little author's corner, what did you guys think of the intro song for my story? I wanted to capture the feel of the intros for the original series as well as pick out a song that fits the right mood. Did I nail it?**

 **If you want a good version of the song, go to Youtube and type in Rock And Roll All Nite (1975). It should be at the very top when you hit search. (I don't own it.)**

 **Don't forget to review but please don't flame!**


	4. Sacrifices

**What's up everybody? Here's chapter four!**

 **I know I said that this would be the chapter where Grayson meets Ruby and the others but due to a hefty amount of work my town has me doing, fatigue finally caught up to me and I had to shorten this. But the next chapter will have the meeting.**

 **Review time!**

 **Wastel007ander97: Thanks. I kind of wished that NDGO, ABRN and SSSN had more lines and screen time but it was very fun having them interact with one another. The meeting is going to be really hilarious in hindsight since RWBY is more geared towards teens while Bulletstorm is a whole new audience!**

 **Don't get me wrong, Bulletstorm is a fantastic, criminally underrated shooter but the slow mo sequences whenever you leash or kick and enemy always sorta took away the pacing a bit.**

 **Guest #1: Gracias!**

 **37: In the next chapter you will! They still have Grimm and White Fang to deal with.**

 **New Universe Returns: Already answered your review in the PM.**

 **Pinkpower3612: Already answered your review in the PM.**

 **Red John: I'm glad to hear you loved the game as much as I did. Sarrano will be the main villain of this fic and will be a third party.**

 **NRG: I totally understand and something like that might happen.**

 **Colossalblackening: You my friend just accurately predicted what I was going to implement in this story! Congratulations!**

 **Guest #2: I know that. She was communicating via texting.**

 **Guest #3: Don't I wish…**

 **Guest #4: Wish granted! I'm just a very slow updater.**

 **Guest #5: Don't forget the giant dinosaurs and cannibal snipers!**

 **Big Smoke: Absolutely. You have a good idea here but im mostly following the Bulletstorm storyline so that may or may not happen. Some of the RWBY cast might curse but it's not as extreme as the Bulletstorm cast.**

 **PineappleWarrior: I update slowly. It's not a crime to take your time. Read on and find out!**

 **Guest #6: I can't give you an exact estimate but it will be a very long time before I go back to it.**

 **Mastermind: LMFAO! That would be perfect! You can certainly expect some Burnout vs Grimm battles in the future. You're absolutely right; Grayson is going to have to restrain himself if he ever wants help from Ruby and the others.**

 **RWBY and Bulletstorm belong to their respective owners. I do not own either of them.**

* * *

Chapter 4

Sacrifices

EMERALD FOREST-OTHER SIDE OF THE PLATAEU

"Listen, I know how this may all look to you-"

"Aliens!"

"Just try to be realistic for-"

" _Aliens!"_

"If you can just push those childish thoughts out of your heads-"

"ALIENS!"

"WILL YOU LET ME FINISH?!"

Weiss had spent the last several minutes trying to explain to Ruby and Nora that it couldn't possibly be an alien invasion but the two of them were so riled up that it was in one ear and out the other. The others were the only ones who didn't seem to buy the whole "alien" thing that Ruby and Nora were suggesting.

"Weiss is right, you two. Aliens don't exist." Blake said, siding with the heiress.

"So if it's not aliens then what is it?" Jaune asked, almost starting to side with Ruby and Nora.

"I think I may have a theory for that." Weiss announced. "This was most likely a secret project conducted by one of the kingdoms. They must've pooled all of their resources together to build the very first airship capable of interstellar travel as well as create some form of Dust that doesn't evaporate when it leaves the atmosphere. Unfortunately they probably made a critical error regarding the design and their modified Dust which eventually led to the disastrous turn of events that we and probably all of Remnant just bore witness to."

Weiss smiled as she felt highly confident that her theory would surely be agreed upon by the rest of her friends. However, she noticed that they all looked confused.

"That sounds…erm…plausible." Pyrrha answered, unsure of what to make of her explanation. It sounded too far-fetched to believe but she did not want to dampen her friend's spirits

"That honestly sounds even crazier than aliens." Yang said, bluntly.

"Well you guys can stick with your own theories; me and Nora still believe its aliens! It's undeniable proof!" Ruby proudly affirmed as Nora nodded in agreement.

Rolling her eyes, Weiss exited the cave along with the others now that the lunar hailstorm had stopped. They could see numerous craters dotting the Emerald Forest and a massive column of smoke in the distance. It had obviously belonged to the gigantic airship that collided with the moon.

"It looks like it landed right into Grimm infested territory. They'll be swarming to that site in minutes." Blake observed.

"Do you guys think there might be any survivors?" Ruby wondered aloud.

"If there are, I pray they'll be able to evacuate the ship before the Grimm arrive." Ren pointed out. A small gasp alerted their attention and the turned to their right to see Nora staring out into the distance. More specifically, she was looking at Vale which was at least a thousand miles away from and was now just a speck beyond the forest. They could make out several columns of smoking emanating from the city as wells as tiny little dots in the sky that were obviously Atlesian airships.

"Oh man…looks like Vale got hit too!" Jaune exclaimed.

"Jeez, just how far out in the Emerald Forest are we?" Yang commented as she squinted her eyes at Vale City.

"We've been traveling in that Bullhead for long that I must've lost track of time." Pyrrha admitted. "I hope everyone is okay."

Worried about the safety of their friends, teachers and everyone else in Vale, they got out their scrolls to contact the Academy. But to their confusion, all they got on their screens were the words "Service Unavailable."

"The CCT must be down!" Nora fearfully concluded.

"It would seem that the situation has not improved. Without the CCT, we won't be able to communicate with anybody and if the other kingdoms are affected by this disaster then they'll be unable to send out requests for help." Ren grimly informed. A feeling of dread washed over the group. If the CCT had been destroyed then humanity was back to square one.

"Wait! I think I can see the CCT Tower! It's still there!" Ruby said, pointing to the city. She was right; everyone could make out a tall looking building standing near Beacon's own tower. They all breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"Well, if it's still standing then that means it's just temporarily offline for the moment." Weiss surmised.

"Guys…we have to go back! Beacon needs our help!" Jaune urgently told everyone. "There's probably a lot of people who are hurt, not to mention the rest of our friends!"

"But Jaune, it would take hours to trek all the way from here to Beacon and the Grimm are most likely swarming the forest!" Pyrrha pointed out.

"That and we have no way to contact another Bullhead to get us back." Blake added.

"So what do we do? We can't head back and we can't just stand here doing nothing." Nora reasoned, leaving everyone stumped. No one said anything for a while.

"I say we keep going and help whoever was in those ships. We still have a mission from Ozpin to complete and there might be someone who's injured or seriously hurt! It's our duty as Huntsmen and Huntresses to help those who are in need." Ruby firmly explained.

"Ruby, I couldn't possible disagree with that statement." Pyrrha agreed as the others nodded in affirmation.

"Sounds like a plan! Once we help any survivors we can try to get to the other ship and head back to Beacon. Besides, we can handle a couple of Grimm!" Yang said eagerly.

"Also, let's not forget that there are multiple hunters teams stationed at beacon as well as a fleet of Atlesian airships and a large contingent of Atlas soldiers, Knights and Paladins. I'm sure they have the situation fully under control!" Weiss proudly reminded them.

"Well then, let's head on out!" Ruby smiled as she and everyone else continued their path to the downed ship. "But a word of advice: don't do anything to make the aliens angry!"

"Cuz' we guarantee you; they _will_ suck out our brains!" Nora finished. Everyone sighed.

Unbeknownst to all of them, had their location been closer to Vale City… _they would've heard the gunfire echoing from the city._

* * *

GRAYSON'S SHIP

The race to the ship hadn't been easy due to the constant interference of the werewolves but thanks to Grayson's newly acquired Instinct Leash, he and Rell had no problems getting back. Any monster the pair encountered was either flung into pointed rocks or yanked into the air where they were shot out of the sky like an oversized clay pigeon.

The two of them entered their ship via a gaping hole in its hull and backtracked their way through the decimated hallways until they finally found the path to the medical bay. They once again heard the voice of Oliver through their coms.

" _Guys! I'm all outta blood packs! One more minuet and he's gone, you hear me?! Where are you?!"_

"We're here, Doc! Just hold tight!" Grayson said as he rounded the corner.

"Ishi's lucky I got so much love for him. Not many other folks I'd do this for." Rell dryly commented.

"Doc'll fix 'im, Rell. You'll see." Grayson reassured him. They finally entered the medical bay and went into the room where Oliver was treating Ishi-

They stopped in the entrance of the doorway, staring in horror at what lay before them.

Ishi lay across the metal stretcher but the whole left half of his body had been replaced by fully cybernetic attachments. His leg and arm were replaced by prosthetic limbs and half his chest was encased in metal armor. In pace of his eye was a cybernetic replacement which glowed blue. The skin around his eye was a rushed, disturbing looking skin graft and the left half of his head was encased in a metal skull, which had several lights that glowed blue as well.

Rell puked.

"What the _FUCK_ did you do him?!" Grayson roared at Oliver who was standing beside Ishi. Oliver looked down at his feet, unable to look Grayson in the eye.

"I did what you told me to do, Gray." Oliver answered. Grayson stomped over and grabbed him by the collar, making Oliver face him.

"I told you help him! Not turn him into Igor Fuckin' Frankenstein!" Grayson raged.

"I did what I could to keep him alive! This was the only to save him!" Oliver countered.

Grayson gritted his teeth and let go of Oliver. Balling up his fists, he looked down at Ishi's unconscious, half robotic form. Ishi would probably never let this down or forgive him if he ever woke up.

"So is he gonna be alright when he wakes up? I know I wouldn't!" Rell asked as he finished wiping off the vomit from his lips.

Oliver sighed. "Only one way to find out. Plug that cell right in here." He explained as he gestured to the console next to Ishi. Rell walked over and slotted the fusion cell into a small port on the side. A dull hum echoed throughout the room as technologically advanced medical instruments descended from the ceiling and hovered over Ishi.

"Alright, you two need to git on out. I have to bioweld millions of neurotransmitters into what's left of Ishi's head." Oliver told them.

"What does that mean?" Grayson asked.

"Half of Ishi's brain was fucked to hell in the crash. I have to graft some artificial tissue to bring back his basic thinking and cognitive functions, as well as restore everything else that was lost. He most likely lost some IQ points too so I have to use the bioweld to repair his lost neurotransmitters and I'll also have to download the AI from the ship to his brain to make up for anything else I can't fix." Oliver explained in great detail.

"We're shoving artificial intelligence into Ishi's noggin? Are sure that's a good idea-" Rell started but was interrupted by Oliver before he could finish.

"You want him alive or not?!" Oliver barked.

"Alight, alright, we get it." Grayson said as he and Rell exited the medical bay and stood guard by the door. They watched Oliver operate on Ishi from the window in silence.

40 minutes had passed and Oliver was successful in the artificial brain tissue graft and the bioweld. Now all that was left was downloading the ship's AI into the part of Ishi's brain that was cybernetic.

"So far so good…" Grayson commented.

"Hey, I'm just wondering, does that leash thing come with a map?" Rell asked.

"Probably. Why?" Grayson replied.

"Well, we might as well try to figure out where we are. I'm kinda itchin' to know what that city was doin' all the way outside Confederate territories."

"Yeah, same here. Let me see what I can do."

Grayson fumbled around with the buttons until he finally figured about how to access the map function. A holographic projector shone from the device and displayed the planet they were on.

"Now let's see where we are exactly…" Grayson said as he tapped a button. The planet started to pan out father and father until the projection showed the entire Milky Way Galaxy. But the most shocking thing they two of them saw was that they were all the way over on the other side of the galaxy.

The very end.

 _Unexplored space._

"Sweet shit snacks! We're that far out?!" Rell shouted in confusion.

"But that's insane! No one would be that crazy to establish a colony all the way out in the Dark Plains!" Grayson said, just as flabbergasted as Rell.

"Why the hell did Ishi warp us out his far?"

"Not sure. But we'll find out when he wakes up-"

 _ **RRRRRRRRRRRRMMMMMMMMMMMMMMBBBBBBBBBBBLLLLLLLLLLL**_

The pair was almost knocked off their feet as low rumble rocked the ship. Then they began to hear banging throughout the whole ship like someone was trying to get in. But it soon turned out to be some _thing_ as snarling and growling could be heard all around them. It didn't take a genius to know that that was and from the sound of it, they were almost in!

Grayson rapped his hand on the window to get Oliver's attention. "Doc, you gotta hurry it up! We might be lookin' at visitors!"

"I just need a few more minutes!" Oliver replied as he feverishly typed away at his console. "Patience is a virtue!"

"Not right now it isn't!" Rell yelled over the banging.

" _Procedure in progress. Sterilization mist deployed."_ The computer announced. As a white mist began to fill the room, a grate from the ceiling fell to the floor along with one of the werewolves!

"DOC! BEHIND YOU! IN THE ROOM!" Grayson shouted!

Doc turned around to see a wolf-like creature advancing towards him! The last thing Grayson and Rell saw before the mist fogged up the windows was Oliver plunging a scalpel into the werewolf's eye. An eerie silence befell the room as they squinted their eyes to try and see through the mist covered windows.

Oliver suddenly slammed against the window, his whole body covered in deep, bloody gashes! The werewolf came up from behind, bit into his neck and _tore out his jugular!_ A gout of blood erupted from the hole in Oliver's throat and splashed all over the window as the sounds of flesh being rendered could be heard!

"OLIVER!"

"SWEET JESUS, NO!"

 _ **CRASH**_

"ROOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGG!"

Grayson and Rell whirled around to see more of the werewolves emerging from air ducts!

"Light em' up! We have to get to Ishi!" Grayson ordered as he and Rell opened fire upon the monsters. Inside the fogged up room, the Beowulf had just finished eviscerating its prey. Ignoring the stinging pain from its eye, it turned around to the prone human. It snarled as it sauntered up to its new target and raised its claws to strike down the defenseless-

 _ **THWOCK**_

A metal fish smashed the Beowulf straight in its face and sent it flying across the room. The Grimm slammed into the wall and fell to the floor. It tried to get up only to have the human yank its entire spinal cord out of its back! Meanwhile, Grayson and Rell were still mowing down the horde of werewolves that had now begun to increase in size as they swarmed through the ship and straight into the medical bay like army ants.

"C'MON YOU FUCKS! GIMMIE SOMETHIN' WORTH DYING FOR!" Rell snarled as he booted a werewolf straight in its face while blasting the others with his Peacemaker.

"LET'S SEE SOME FIGHT, YOU SAVAGE COCKSUCKERS!" Grayson raged in fury as he leashed a werewolf by the neck and flung it into a bundle of electrified wires.

As they fought the horde of monstrosities closing in on them the whole medical bay started to shake and the doors to the operating room began to swell inwards.

" _WARNING. PRESSURE LOST. SYSTEM OVERLOAD. SYSTEM OVERLOAD. SYS-"_

 _ **BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM**_

* * *

EMERALD FOREST-OTHER SIDE OF THE PLATEAU

SEVERAL SECONDS EARLIER

Ruby blocked the downward swipe of an Ursa and followed up by severing its legs. As it collapsed to the ground, Yang and Nora rushed over and smashed its head into paste with their weapons. On their way to the ship, the teams had encountered a horde of Grimm en route. It mostly consisted of Beowolves and Ursa' but since they had so much experience fighting them, they didn't really have that much difficulty disposing of them. Ren finished perforating the last of the Beowolves with StormFlower leaving about 20 or so Grimm bodies lying around them.

"I think that's the last of them." Blake observed. "Lets keep moving. We shouldn't be too far from the crash-"

 _ **BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM**_

A massive explosion rocked the entire plateau and nearly deafened the group! The turned to the left just in time to see a giant plume of fire and smoke erupt into the sky! There was no doubt in their minds that had to have come from the ship that crashed there. They all watched the plume in silence as a feeling of dread began to dawn upon them all.

"You don't think…" Jaune began.

"We ain't calling it until we see a body. Let's hurry over there before-" Yang and everyone else was alerted to the sound of more Grimm coming up the plateau could be heard. Multiple Beowolves began to scale the rocky cliffs and towards the Hunters/Huntresses!

"Before more Grimm arrive?" Ruby asked Yang.

"Bingo." Yang tiredly replied as she rolled her eyes.

* * *

EMERALD FOREST-BASE OF THE PLATEAU

Emerald and Mercury had traveled a fairy good distance since they had gotten a head start and they had just arrived at their destination when they heard a thundering explosion.

Mercury whistled as he looked as the rising pillar of smoke. "You think anyone survived that?"

"I have a better question. Why are you still carrying me!?" Emerald snapped.

Mercury had actually been piggybacking her the whole trip.

"Well, I have lighter prosthetics which means I can run faster and last time I checked, you can't keep up with me. Not to mention that I recently installed some boosters into them and if I remember correctly, you're the one that suggested i-"

"If you so much as _breathe_ a word of this to Cinder, I will personally castrate you and force feed you your own testicles." Emerald hissed.

"Wow. You don't date often, do you?"

 _WHOK_

* * *

GRAYSON'S SHIP

Every bone in his body ached. Darkness clouded his vision. The only thing he could hear was muffled snarling and roaring.

Grayson's vision started to come back and his slight slowly came back to him and saw that the whole medical bay was bathed in fire. Everything was in shambles as sparks rained down from above. A low rumble echoed throughout the ship, a sign that it was ready to collapse in on itself. He suddenly started to hear pained yelling and growling. He sat himself up and was treated to a nightmarish sight.

Five of the werewolves, including a werebear, had completely surrounded a horribly bloodied Rell. The man was covered in lacerations and most of his blood had begun to pool around him. The werewolves slashed at his body and slammed him around with their large paws, seemingly relishing in his pain and toying with him all while completely oblivious to the flames around them.

Grayson tried to get up and save Rell but his legs were numb and it hurt to move. He spotted his Boneduster lying next to him and he felt that he still had Ishi's HeadHunter slung across his back. He slowly grabbed Boneduster but then one of the werewolves noticed him move and snarled to its brethren. The creatures turned their heads towards Grayson and began to menacingly approach him, moving away from Rell's motionless (and presumably dead) body.

As Grayson aimed his weapon at the pack, he suddenly felt something tightly grab his shoulders. He looked upwards and was surprised to see that it was Ishi! The cyborg unslung his sniper rifle from Grayson's back and took aim with steely determination. Grayson did the same but then he noticed something moving a few inches away from the pack.

Rell was still alive! Despite the massive blood loss and the searing pain, he crawled over to several barrels filled with highly explosive chemicals and tightly grabbed one. He turned to Grayson and Ishi and gave them a weak smile.

"It's been an honor servin' with ya, guys…" He croaked as blood dribbled from his mouth. The werebear noticed Rell and let out a throaty roar. It grabbed Rell by the waist and sunk its teeth into his collarbone!

Rell screamed bloody murder but still maintained his grip on the explosive barrel! "SHOOT ME, BOSS! _DO IT!_ " He shouted!

A knot formed in Grayson's gut as he was forced to make a difficult choice. But he knew that there was no other alternative. He turned to Ishi who had the same pained look as he did an aimed Boneduster at the barrel with regret.

"Godspeed, Rell." He pulled the trigger Just as the werewolves pounced upon him.

BAKOOM

The whole room was engulfed in flames as an enormous explosion reverberated through the plateau.

To be continued…

* * *

 **Pretty damn heart wrenching, huh?**

 **In my earlier drafts, I was originally going to have Oliver and Rell live but that would mean taking away the impact and ramifications of Grayson's booze fueled decision to attack the Ulysses so I left their deaths in.**

 **One change I made to the story was having the CCT be the primary source of communication through the whole planet. In the original series, long range communication was no longer available but from what I could tell, short range still worked. But with the change I made, and you may have to resort to using messenger birds now that the CCT is down.**

 **For those of you who were confused at the last part when The teams left for the crash site, it means that they are too far away to hear the battle in Vale City. Same goes for Mercury and Emerald.**

 **Another change I enjoyed doing was having Mercury install Dust powered boosters into his prosthetics. He can't fly but he can run at amazing speeds. I wanted to give him and Emerald a way to quickly reach the crash site of Grayson's ship.**

 **One more special thing I want to share with you all is that im adding in a sense of deepening mystery. In this universe, humanity has colonized half of the Milky Way Galaxy but there is still an insane amount of planets that they haven't colonized yet and nobody would ever dare to venture out into unknown territory due to too many risks. Remnant is located all the way at the very end, the last planet in the galaxy. But why is it the only planet with human life? How did it manage to thrive for so long this far out away from any known settlement? The answers will continue to be a mystery as the cast tries to shed some light on Remnant's origins.**

 **I once again apologize for not making this the chapter where they meet the RWBY cast, the next one will. I promise.**

 **Don't forget to review but please don't flame.**


	5. A New World

**Chapter 5 in da house! And an extra-long one too!**

 **I apologize if this took a while, I had to attend my town's harvest supper and I was busy working on the fight scenes.**

 **Review Time!**

 **37: And it's only going to get thicker!**

 **Foreteller of Three: Thanks for the constructive criticism.**

 **Junior VB: You'll see!**

 **New Universe Returns: Sorry if this took a while.**

 **PineappleWarrior: No worries, my friend!**

 **Guest #1: Many months, if not maybe years.**

 **Big Smoke & Mastermind: You two have some amazingly good theories and I'm planning on making a backstory to all this sometime in the future.**

 **Guest #2: I think the seizure part goes to Cinder and Qrow can help Ozpin on that liquor idea.**

 **Red John: The Grimm version of the Hekaton will take the stage but i think there still might be room for the Grimm Dragon.**

 **Iudex Gundeeeeee: I love Wolfenstein but I probably won't be doing any crossovers with that, I have too many stories to work on.**

 **Wayward Son: That won't happen but I will find a way to keep Ishi from ever running out of power.**

 **Rwby and Bulletstorm belong to their respective owners. I do not own either of them.**

* * *

Chapter 5

A New World

EMERALD FOREST-PLATEAU

Grayson slowly opened his eyes and was greeted with the sun shining brightly in the sky. He wearily got up and inspected himself. Aside from a few singed areas on his clothing, he was miraculously okay. He got up and was greeted with the sight of his ship in flames. Then, everything started to come back to him in the worst way possible.

His hands began to shake as he looked at them. He had just lost two of his best friends and by the looks of it; he had most likely lost Ishi as well. He shook his head as overwhelming guilt began to well up inside of him. Then he heard something behind him and turned around to see one of the werewolves, heavily wounded and trying to crawl away.

Grayson's grief was replaced by uncontrollable rage as he grabbed a nearby rock and ran straight at the creature! He tackled it to the ground and began savagely smashing it's skull in with the rock, each hit sending black blood and pieces of its bone mask flying everywhere!

 _CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK_

Grayson continued to pound the werewolf's head into an unrecognizable mess even though it was already dead, grief and fury consuming every part of his soul.

"FUCK!"

 _CRACK_

"FUCK!"

 _CRACK_

" **FUCK!"**

 _CRACK_

" _ **FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!"**_

 _ **KA-SPLAT**_

Grayson began taking deep, ragged breaths as he got off the werewolf's corpse and fell to his knees. He angry punched the ground as his lips curled into an ugly grimace. It was all of his fault. His friends were dead because of him. All because of his drunken fit of rage and his vendetta against Serrano. They had all been through the worst that Sarrano threw at them and they became like small family of brothers. But now that was gone. He was now the last remaining member of Dead Echo.

After wallowing in his own guilt for several minutes, Grayson got himself up, composed himself and picked up Boneduster that was lying just a few feet away from him. This wasn't the time to be moping; this was the time for action. He would continue fighting and living for his fallen friends. It's what they would've wanted.

First order of business was to head over to the Ulysses crash site and make sure that Sarrano was dead. Once that was done, he would travel to the city that he and Rell saw earlier and maybe ask the inhabitants for a ship they could give him-

"Gray…" Someone croaked.

Grayson spun himself around to the source of the voice and was both shocked and relived to see that it was Ishi! The cyborg still held HeadHunter but then he slumped up against a chunk of the ship.

"Ishi! Thank God you're alive!" Grayson gasped.

"Help me…please…the _pain_ …" He groaned as he staggered over to Grayson, his faced wracked with agony.

"Woah, hold on!" Grayson said as he rushed over and helped Ishi up. "Just take it easy. You're lucky to be alive, buddy."

"Luck…" Ishi began but then his eye suddenly turned blood red. **"Luck is not relevant."** His voice had become dangerously low and metallic sounding.

"Uh…what?" Grayson replied, a little disturbed by Ishi's sudden change in attitude.

"No- **I'm** \- Gray! Some **t** hi **ngs wr** on **g! Wh** at's ha **p** p **enin** g **!?"** Ishi babbled incoherently as his voice became more and more distorted. He finally collapsed to the ground, coughing and sweating profusely.

Grayson knelt down to his friend and broke the news to him. "You were seriously hurt in the attack. Doc had to replace your limbs with bionic prosthetics and had he had to patch up your brain with a bioprocessor along with our ship's artificial intelligence. You're going to have trouble getting used to it but….i-i-it's like an amputation." Grayson stuttered, trying to find the right word for Ishi's current state.

"But I'm not going to leave you like this. I'm gonna help you." Grayson assured him. But before he could even move a muscle, Ishi's cybernetic arm instantly clamped around Grayson's throat and lifted him up off his feet!

Ishi slowly stood up, his left eye now red and his features was one of undisguised fury. **"** _ **You**_ **? You are going to help** _ **me**_ **? I'm having an** _ **extremely**_ **difficult time seeing how you of all people can** _ **help**_ **me. Your drunken thirst for revenge just killed our crew."**

"You're…you're right." Grayson confessed, despite the vice-like grip around his neck. "You were right about warping us away from the Ulysses. If I had listened to you then all of this wouldn't have happened. I'm…I'm sorry."

Ishi's cybernetic eye reverted back to blue and his features softened, touched by Grayson's apology. His grip on his friend's throat loosened and he began to let him down slowly. Grayson felt relieved that he managed to get through to him but then Ishi's eye suddenly turned back to red and resumed strangling the life out of Grayson!

" **You're sorry?!"** Ishi snarled. He threw Grayson up against the ship and menacingly marched towards him in pure bloodlust. _**"YOU'RE SORRY?!"**_ Ishi raged.

As Grayson struggled to get up, he began to realize what was going on with his friend. "Ishi! The AI is trying to take control of your mind! You have to fight it! You can't let it-URK!" Grayson's pleas fell upon deaf ears as Ishi grabbed him by the throat again and slammed him up against the hull of their ruined ship. The cyborg raised his fist, ready to put it straight through Grayson's skull.

" **I am going to** _ **kill**_ **you, Grayson Hunt. I see no logical reason not to-"**

 _Boop Boop Boop Boop Boop Boop_

Ishi looked down at the beeping device on Grayson's hand and released him. "That is a Final Echo Instinct Leash." Ishi identified, his AI persona gone.

"Yeah. So what?" Grayson said as he got up, casting a cautious look towards Ishi.

"The communication line. Open it but mute the mike." Ishi instructed. Grayson tapped a couple of buttons and it activated its communications function.

"… _Repeat, all Final Echo survivors report positions."_ Came the voice of a tough sounding woman who had no doubt been through her fair share of several battles.

" _Trishka, this is Sarrano!"_ The dreaded General barked. His voice was shrill, hoarse, grating and betokened extreme sadism along with unnecessary cruelty towards baby animals. _"I'm alive but stuck on some damned hotel rooftop! Shake that sweet little can of yers! Locals are congregating; I'm in the shit here and need some help!"_

" _To any other Echo survivors, switch to tracker and zero in on my location. I'm off to guard the General downtown."_

Grayson turned off the communications in anger. "Sarrano…that motherfucker is here." And he was still alive. As Grayson fumed over his failed attempt to kill the man that ruined the lives of so many innocents, an idea popped into his head. He started to chuckle to himself.

"This changes everything, Ishi! Even if you don't want to rid the galaxy of that son of a whore, rescue jumpships will be here soon to bail his ass out of here. Jumpships that we can use as well. Process _that_ chance of survival."

Ishi mulled this over for a moment before realizing what Grayson was getting at. "Can you track the woman?"

"Got it." He tapped a button and the leash located the woman known as Trishka. "If we can find that broad, we can track her to Sarrano and-"

"We use the General to get off-world. Killing him is counterproductive." Ishi interrupted, knowing full well what Grayson was really planning. "I know how important it is for you to 'help' me."

As much as Grayson really wanted to kill Sarrano, Ishi had a point. If they killed him before the jumpships arrived then they would be stuck on an unknown, uncharted planet at the very end of the galaxy. Ishi needed better medical treatment and the lingering AI had to be purged out of his mind. In order for that to happen, they needed to leave this world. His friend took first priority.

"Yeah, of course. I wasn't thinking of killing him." Grayson hesitantly admitted. "We get to him; we get you off-word. I know some ex-Confederate bioengineers that can you fixed up, Ishi. I swear it on my mother's grave."

Ishi didn't look hopeful. His expression soured and he narrowed his eyes at Grayson. "Then if I expire, you have failed you last bid for redemption." He huffed as he picked up HeadHunter and walked away from him.

"Guess so." Grayson glumly muttered. There was the very real possibility that their friendship was over but he wouldn't rest until he helped Ishi. Grayson noticed Ishi starting to stumble around a little as he held his head in pain. He quickly rushed over to him.

"What's wrong?"

"The battery cell within my bioprocessor is low. If I do not recharge it soon, I will die."

Grayson swore under his breath. The search for that Final Echo woman would have to wait. He toyed around with his Instinct Leash to see if it could locate someplace that could give Ishi a much needed recharge. It came through and Grayson's face lit up at the results.

"Good news, man. There's a large facility southeast from here with high energy readings. It won't be easy getting there with all these weremonster freakjobs attacking us but it's the only place that's gotta have some power cells."

"Then I will follow you… _this one last time."_

* * *

HIGH ABOVE THE EMRALD FOREST

Penny hovered high above the treetops of the Emerald Forest with a conflicted look on her face. Earlier, she had made good progress in her course to the 1st downed ship. She had combined her swords, Hephaestus, into a jetpack so that she could travel to the crash site as quickly as possible.

But then her sensors detected unidentified hostiles were attacking Vale City and she had stopped mid-flight. She looked to the thin column of smoke to her right and then looked back to the city where her auditory sensors could pick up the sounds of gunfire and battle.

Penny was now faced with a tough decision. Should she head back and assist Ironwood and the Atlesian forces or resume her mission? After meticulously running numerous calculations through her internal processors, she concluded that the Atlesian forces currently stationed there were more than capable of defending the city. With the addition of Beacon Academy's Hunters and Huntresses, along with others from the kingdoms participating in the tournament, their chances of survival increased. She had faith in General Ironwood and the rest of his forces and knew they could handle the situation.

As she resumed her flight towards the crash site, she began to wonder what the unknown hostiles were…

* * *

EMERALD FOREST-PLATEAU

Grayson and Ishi navigated their way through the rocky chasms of the plateau; most of which had pieces of the ship strewn about. The Instinct Leash had done a pretty good job steering them in the right direction to the facility. Grayson still had his eyes on the Leash but didn't notice some of the barrels from their ship were aflame!

 _BOOM_

"GAH!"

The explosion knocked Grayson off his feet but he was thankfully unharmed.

"Stay alert. There are many volatile components amid the debris." Ishi advised.

"Roger." Grayson said but then noticed a dark shape hunched atop the rocks and then leap towards Ishi!

"DUCK!" Grayson yelled as he friend instinctively ducked down to avoid what just tried to pounce on him. Grayson and Ishi got a good look at the being that tumbled across the ground: it was a dinosaur-like creature with two hind legs, no arms and a long tail covered in spikes. But one distinct feature was that it looked just like the werewolves and werebears!

They began to hear the sounds of something running towards them and they turned around to see two more of them coming straight at them! The first one charged at Grayson but it never got the chance as it was blown into pieces by Boneduster.

 _ **BAKOOOOM**_

One of the approaching creatures jumped towards Ishi with its fanged maw wide open but the cyborg rammed his metal fist straight down its gullet and pulled out its dark colored entrails! The 3rd creature was almost upon Ishi but he backfisted it away from him and while it was stunned, ripped off the top half of its head!

"Damn! Nice job, Mortal Kombat!" Grayson commented.

Ishi nodded in approval but then snapped his head towards the rocky path ahead of them.

"I am picking up three hostile signatures heading towards us." The two of them readied their weapons and they saw three warthog like monsters round the corner of the chasm. They each had jet black fur, four eyes, covered in bony plates, rattlesnake-like fangs and two oversized, curved tusks.

"Fucking perfect. First wereraptors and now werehogs. This planet's just chock full of fucked up surprises." Grayson sarcastically complained.

"Let us dispose of them so we can continue-" Ishi's suggestion was cut short when the werehogs suddenly rolled themselves up and barreled straight towards them!

"What the!?" Grayson balked as the creatures smashed through the rocks and debris with the force of a speeding car! Grayson fired Boneduster at the nearest one but it swerved away from the shot and slammed into him! He was thrown to the ground as it rolled past him.

Ishi ducked down to avoid the 2nd one but the 3rd werehog rammed right into him, sending him crashing into a rock. The werehogs swiveled themselves around launched themselves at the duo again! Grayson rolled out of the way to avoid the first one but one of its fangs sliced across his thigh, making him shout out in pain.

The other two went for Ishi again but he lifted up a jagged slab of their ship and stabbed it in front of him, forming a makeshift ramp. The werehogs rolled across the ramp and soared through the air before landing back to the ground. This did not deter the beasts as the once again rolled towards them once again.

Thinking quickly, Grayson leashed the slab of metal and swung it in a horizontal arc. The razor sharp debris sliced through the werehogs like a hot knife through butter! The last one was nearing Grayson but he flung out the slab and deactivated his leash at the last second so that it speared right into the werehog and impaled it into the chasm wall!

"Sweet dreams, Porkchop." Grayson smiled. The werehog squealed in pain before mercifully expiring. He grunted in pain as he sat himself down on a rock. The cut on his thigh looked bad and Ishi tore off a chunk of his shirt and wrapped it around the wound.

"If we ever get off this rock, I'm tellin' everyone to stay as far away from it as possible. This planet's a fuckin' death world just like Regulus 6." Grayson hissed as he got up. He noticed Ishi staring at one of the dissipating corpses of the monsters. He dipped his finger into a puddle of its black blood and rubbed it between his thumb and index finger. It was unnaturally thick.

"I am unable to get a scan of these creatures." Ishi observed. "It's most likely due to their strange biology."

"Let me try." Grayson suggested and he leveled his Instinct Leash at the bodies. A wide cone of light emitted from the tip and it moved up, down and across the corpses. It disappeared and a big red "ERROR" sign popped up on the holographic display.

"No luck." He commented. They instantly heard numerous growling noises above them and they looked up to see 10 of the wereraptors perched on the rocks above them! With a load roar, the wereraptors jumped off the rocks towards them but Ishi aimred HeadHunter at them and pulled the trigger.

 _ **SKAPOW**_

A fifty caliber, anti-material round shot out of the rifle and ripped straight through the head of the 1st wereraptor. But it didn't stop there! The bullet swerved through the air, piercing the skulls of the creatures like an angry wasp covered in Teflon! Ishi continued to look through his scope as the targeting systems guided the remote controlled round through the rest of the monsters. The wereraptors were all dead before they even hit the ground.

Grayson whistled as he looked as the disappearing corpses, every one of them had a clean hole through their skulls. "Looks like your aim's gotten better!"

"I suppose some good did come out of my condition." Ishi admitted.

"Speaking of which, how are you holding up? Is the pain manageable?" Grayson asked.

"It is _not_. I am left to endure it regardless." Ishi huffed as he wiped the sweat away from his forehead.

"We're going to get you the hell out of here, Ishi. Just keep it together." Grayson reassured him. The duo continued through the rocky chasm for a good 20 minutes until they finally came upon a large, barred gate with barbed wire at the top. This was a clear sign that there were actually people living on this planet.

But their main focus was on the strange, cylindrical object that had a hole in the middle which glowed blue, made odd beeping noises and had a small crater around it. They took note of the numerous tools scattered around it. The inhabitants must've been trying to dismantle it. But was it, anyway?

Grayson lightly tapped the object with his foot. "Looks like it fell from the Ulysses. You got any idea what we're lookin' at here?"

Ishi silently scanned it. "No. But it is Confederate, though. The markings date to operation logs from over two years ago on a planet known as Stygia. The rest of the information has been automatically deleted."

Grayson scoffed. "You just _know_ Sarrano was up to some shit there." He had only heard of the name but he never knew anything else about the planet. He took a closer look at the object and noticed that his Instinct Leash was starting to light up. That's when he saw words starting to appear in his vision.

} DROPKIT DETECTED- PLEASE REGISTER IMMEDIATEY.

Grayson raised an eyebrow and looked at the dropkit. He remembered the Leash informing him to do so back when he first put it on. Hoping that it wasn't a trap, he pointed it at the dropkit and the energy leash shot out and slotted itself into the hole. Grayson's world went into a hazy blue just like last time. The only difference was that there was no pain involved.

} DROPKIT #1375 ACTIVATED.

} CONNECTION ESTABLISHED.

} REGISTERING NEW USER…

} RESETTING EQUIPMENT DATABASE…

} ANALYZING USER ATTRIBUTES…

} SCANNING WEAPON-WEAPON APPROVED.

} UPLOADING SKILLSHOT DATABASE…

} COMBAT SKILL ANALYSIS ACTIVE.

} 3D HEADS UP DISPLAY ACTIVATED.

} REGISTRATION COMPLETE-DROPKITS AVAILABLE FOR USE.

"Son of a mother-this tech is wild!" Grayson said in amazement. A holographic menu popped up on his Instinct Leash. There was a small counter with a button that said, "REARM" at the bottom. Grayson was both confused and intrigued. Could this dropkit give him more ammo?

He pressed the button but nothing happened. A message popped up that said, "INSFFIECENT SKILLPOINTS."

"Insufficient skillpoints? This cocky leash is grading my performance!" Grayson complained.

Ishi suddenly turned his head over to the gated entrance. "It will have further opportunity to mark your efficiency. I am detecting movement nearing our current position."

Grayson yanked the Leash out of the dropkit and reloaded Boneduster. He took note that he now had only 8 shells left in his bandolier. He had to find out how to make this dropkit work. _Fast._

"What do we got? More weremonsters?" Grayson asked as he stood next to Ishi.

"Not sure." He answered. They readied themselves for another fight but then they started to hear the sounds of people talking to each other!

"This is nuts, man. First a ship crashes though the freakin' moon and now we can't get into contact with anybody!"

"Will you just calm down? We'll probably get a messenger from the lieutenant in a few hours. He and Adam wouldn't just leave us hanging."

"In the meantime, let's see if we can crack open that container. Maybe we can find something useful."

The footsteps got closer and three people (two men and one woman) rounded the corner. They wore black and white uniforms and wore pointed, silver-colored masks covering their eyes as well as most of their face. They wielded assault rifles of an unknown design and wore what appeared to be animal accessories (cat ears, horns).

Grayson's face lit up in relief. "Finally! People!" He got up and rushed over to the gate.

Ishi on the other hand, didn't share Grayson's relief. Something didn't feel right. "Grayson, wait!"

But it was too late. Grayson banged on the gate, earning the attention of the three masked people. "Hey! Could you guys lend us a hand? My friend needs help-"

"Humans?! How they hell did they find us?!"

"Kill them! No one can know we're here!"

 _BUDDA BUDDA BUDDA BUDDA BUDDA_

Grayson and Ishi dove for cover behind some rocks as the assailants opened fire on them.

"SHIT! Who the hell are these douchebags?!" Grayson yelled over the gunfire.

"I do not know but we have no other options, we must fight back!" Ishi responded.

Grayson growled in frustration and readied his Instinct Leash. "Alright. You act crazy, you _get crazy_."

Grayson flung out his leash at the nearest mook and roped around his waist. Before the poor bastard could even register what was happening, he was yanked back so hard he soared over the barbed wire and down to the burly looking man! The last thing he saw was the man aiming a large, four barreled weapon at him.

 _ **BAKOOOM**_

The man was blown clean in half, his lower body landing onto the ground with a wet splat while the upper half flew straight into the barbed wire and became tangled within the multitude of razor sharp edges. The man let out a final pained gurgle before dying; his guts spilling out all over the gate. The masked people stared in horror while Grayson smirked in amusement. Then, he began to see words pop up over the mangled corpse, along with points next to them.

}TOPLESS{ 25sp

}PUMP-ACTION{ 50sp

}VOODOO DOLL{ 100sp

' _Sp? As in skillpoints?'_ Grayson thought. His internal musings were interrupted when they masked people began to fire upon him once again, making him retreat back to the rocks.

"KILL HIM! FUCKING KILL HIM!" one of them yelled in fury. They continued to unload their clips at the rocks the men were hiding behind but then and to stop to reload. Seeing his chance, Grayson popped up from behind the rock, shot out his leash and it went through the bars of the gate before wrapping around the other assailant's neck. He screamed in pain as the whip burned deep into his skin. He was then dragged forward straight into the gate where his head got stuck between the bars!

Grayson rushed over but then noticed the masked woman had finished reloading her weapon but she never got the chance to fire as Ishi's sniper round tore through the side of her head. Grayson then kneed the last masked soldier in his face and then violently twisted his neck; an audible snapping sound filling the air.

}CHIROPRACTOR{ 55sp

"Phew…what the fuck was their problem?!" Grayson asked Ishi as he caught his breath.

"Your guess is as good as mine." He answered.

Grayson looked to the dropkit and wondered if he had enough of these 'skillpoints' required to rearm. We went over, leashed the port and the holographic menu popped up on his device. He pressed the rearm button and a light began to shine out of the dropkit and onto the ground. To Ishi and Grayson's amazement, it began to 3D print a pile of shotgun shells right before their eyes!

"Incredible…" Ishi breathed.

"Hot damn! Looks like we won't have to worry about running out of ammo!" Grayson said gleefully as he grabbed the shells and stuffed them into his bandolier.

"Provided you eliminate your enemies skillfully. Can you produce ammo for my rifle?" Ishi inquired.

"Yeah. Let me see HeadHunter." Grayson said, holding out his hand. Ishi gave Grayson his weapon and the dropkit began to automatically scan it. Grayson pressed the rearm button and the dropkit printed out 3 drum magazines for HeadHunter.

"Ask and ye shall receive." Grayson said with a cocky grin. After slinging the mags across his back, Ishi went over to the gate and pulled it down with his bionic strength. The two went through the gate and began to inspect the bodies of their masked attackers.

Grayson flipped one of the bodies over and looked at the insignia on the back of the uniform. It depicted a snarling animal with three claw marks behind it, all colored red. "All things considered, that's a pretty badass lookin' symbol. Do you think they're pirates?" He asked Ishi.

"Probably. But their insignia does not match any known pirate faction. Also, their guns are not Confederate weaponry." Ishi informed as he showed Grayson the weapon they were using. Grayson took it and began to inspect the weapon. It had a sleek, bullpup design with a silver and red finish.

"You think they made these themselves?"

"Highly unlikely. Weapons made by pirates are shoddy and ramshackle at best."

"Maybe they had someone else make it for them." Grayson mused as he tossed the gun over his shoulder; he was already comfortable with Boneduster. He knelt down an inspected the one of the bodies. "What do you think all that 'human' crap was about? And why the hell are they wearing these goofy animal accessories?" Grayson pondered as he tugged one corpse that had cat ears.

But the he noticed something… _disturbing_. The ears were stuck on pretty tight but they felt too real. Grayson removed the mask, pulled down the hood and jumped back in surprise when he saw that they were literally a part of his body! Ishi was just as surprised as well and went over to the body of the woman he had just neutralized earlier. Pulling down the hood, he saw that the horns growing out of her head were real!

"What the fuck…!?" Grayson blurted out.

Ishi scanned the corpses for a moment. "Their genetic code…it contains traces of animal DNA!"

" _Carter! Audrey! Sid! Come in!"_

The duo was snapped out of their stupor when the heard someone. They looked down and saw the source of the voice came from a walkie talkie-like device near one of the bodies.

" _We heard gunfire over by the entrance! What's going on!?"_

Grayson rushed over to it and spoke into it, pretending to be one of them. "Uh, this is Sid! Nothin' to worry about! We were doing a…um…weapons check! Just some good ol' target practice! Everything's perfectly okay!" Grayson winked to Ishi and gave him a thumbs up.

" _You're not Sid! Who the hell is this?!"_

"Err….." Grayson drawled as Ishi smacked his head in frustration.

" _Get some of our guys over there! Our position's been compromised!"_ The walkie talkie went dead.

"What made you think you could possibly fool them?" Ishi asked rhetorically.

"Shut up!" Grayson snapped in embarrassment as he checked the tracker on his Instinct Leash. "The energy signature is just a little bit ahead but we're going to have to fight our way through."

"Very well." Ishi said.

They ran forward through the winding chasms filled with cacti until they came upon large mining facility that had the hybrid people's symbol emblazoned on a flag hung on one of the silos. They had already begun to see the hybrids mobilizing for an attack and knew that this wouldn't be easy. But Ishi needed to recharge and this was the only path to get there.

Ducking behind the valley wall, Grayson and Ishi spotted metal crate that had a flame symbol on it nearby. Grayson looked to Ishi with a big grin on his face. Ishi nodded and overcharged HeadHunter.

Grayson popped out from cover casually went over to a group of the hybrids clustered near the main entrance of the complex. "Howdy, motherfuckers! How's your health plan?"

"Intruders! Open fi-"

 _(Party Party Party- Andrew W.K.)_

"APPARENTLY IT'S GREAT!" Grayson leashed the crate and flung it towards the group while Ishi dove out of cover and fired at the crate just as it was about it hit the group. Just as the bullet hit its mark, Ishi tapped a small button near the trigger which activated the bullet's detonator.

The effect was both instantaneous and devastating.

 _ **BWAFWOOOOOOOOSH**_

The force of the bullet's explosive payload instantly ignited the dozens of vials containing fire Dust within the container creating a massive explosion which bathed the unfortunate White Fang soldiers in searing flames while blowing the gate back so hard, it gruesomely splattered 3 other White Fang members who just so happened to be unlucky enough to be standing behind it. The other members caught in the blast were either blown to pieces or died a slow, agonizing death as the fire literally cooked them alive.

}ENVIRO-MENTAL{ 50sp x5

}PANCAKED{ 50sp x3

}TOASTY{ 150sp x5

The hybrids began to open fire from positions along the walls that surrounded the facility at the duo. Grayson ducked behind a disassembled vehicle while Ishi had one of them right in his crosshairs. "Taste my fury!" Ishi yelled.

He pulled the trigger and the round ripped through his target's head but the swerved around and pierced through the skulls of 5 other soldiers who just so happened to be in a line! The attacker stopped shooting as the heads of several of their comrades was suddenly ventilated for no apparent reason after the intruder had fired only _one shot._ Their weak Auras offered no protection against their weapons.

Grayson took advantage of the enemy's stunned state and targeted the nearest hybrid (one with rat ears and buck teeth). He whipped his leash towards the soldier and it wrapped around his neck before the idiot could even react. He yanked the leash back so hard that it ripped off the hybrid's head off with his spinal cord still intact!

}POP-TOP{ 500sp

The horrified soldiers gasped and yelled out in terror as the headless body of their comrade spurted out blood like a firehose before falling over!

"HOLY SHIT! MICK!" One of them cried out.

"OH, OH, OH! WAS THIS YOUR FRIEND?! DON'T WORRY; HE DIED DOING WHAT HE LOVED _ **! BEING A DUMB FUCKING RAT!**_ " Grayson manically taunted as he dangled the head from its spinal cord for all to see.

"HE WAS A MOUSE, YOU SICK BASTARD!" Another yelled as he fired upon Grayson. Grayson ducked behind the vehicle again and spotted another container above them hanging by a small crane. This time it had a lighting symbol on it which gave Grayson a pretty good idea on what would happen if it fell upon his foes.

He leashed the container downwards at it popped open, releasing dozens of vials containing a yellow substance. The hybrids tried to scatter away from the vials but as soon as they hit the ground, each one released volts of electricity that shocked them all fatally.

}KILL-O-WATT{ 200sp x7

With the attackers on the walls down for the count, Ishi and Grayson stormed through the gate and prepared for another firefight…only to see that the interior was vacant.

"It would appear that we have dispatched them all." Ishi said, stating the obvious.

"For a second I thought there was going to be more." Grayson said as he slung Boneduster across his back.

The two of them observed their surroundings. The mining equipment and the facility itself were unlike anything they had seen. It all felt so alien and different; like it was made by an unknown manufacturer. They looked at the bodies of the hybrids and saw more of their apparent animal features: scales, fangs, tusks, feathers, tails, horns, antlers and more animal ears. All of which were part of their biology.

"It's strange. I didn't think there would be people this far out in the galaxy." Ishi mused.

"If you think that's weird, earlier me and Rell saw a city when we were looking for that fusion cell." Grayson revealed.

Ishi turned to Grayson in surprise. "There are more people on this planet?"

"Most likely but we don't know for certain…damn it, this doesn't make any sense! We're all the way over in the side quadrants. The literal _ass end_ of the Milky Way Galaxy. There's no way anybody would be crazy enough to wander this far out into unexplored space!" Grayson reasoned.

"Yet they were able to establish a colony far away from any known Confederate outposts." Ishi added.

"So what do you reckon'? We've stumbled upon some kind of secret pirate uranium mining colony and they've 'enhanced' themselves with animal DNA?" Grayson guessed.

Ishi gave him a perplexed look before thinking it over for a few seconds. He shook his head. "I don't think it's that simple. As brazen as pirates might be, they would never risk traveling into uncharted territories. I've done some more scanning of their DNA; it shows no signs of genetic tampering or manipulation. And the designs of this facility are too skillful to be built by pirates. This is no back world operation."

"What about the weremonsters?"

"I do not have an explanation for them. They are a mystery."

Grayson let out an exhausted sigh." Just keeps getting stranger and stranger…" He went over to one of the broken open containers and picked up a vial that was inside it. Within the vial appeared to be colored sand. It certainly wasn't uranium. What the hybrids were doing with these and how it was able to emit fire and lighting was beyond him.

"Say, Ishi. Why did you warp us all the way out here in the first place?" Grayson asked. It was a question he had been meaning to ask him for a while.

"It was never my intention to warp us out this far. Our position had been compromised when our ship's sensors detected incoming Confederate corvettes. I accidently typed in the wrong coordinates into the navigation systems when I activated our warp drive. When we came out, I saw the Ulysses within the planet's orbit." Ishi explained.

"Well, at least that brings everything up to speed-" Grayson suddenly stop mid-sentence when a stunning realization hit him like a truck. "Hold up a sec…you said that the Ulysses was there when you arrived. What was Sarrano doing all the way out here?"

Ishi was about to answer when he instantly snapped his head towards the entrance of the mining complex and readied HeadHunter. Grayson knew what that meant.

"Oh for fucks sake, now what!?" He growled as he got out Boneduster.

"We have over 65 hostiles incoming! They match the signatures of the creatures!" Ishi gravely assessed.

"Shit! You got the high ground; I'll handle the low ground!" Grayson urgently told his friend.

* * *

EMERALD FOREST-PLATEAU

Jaune climbed atop of a large boulder to see if he could get a better vantage point of the crashed ship. It proved to be beneficial as he could finally see their objective a distance away.

"Guys! I can see the ship! It's not far from here!" Jaune announced to his friends who were catching up.

"Finally! I was starting to get a little bit tired beating up all those Grimm." Yang said.

"Didn't you say that Grimm bashing never gets old?" Nora inquired.

"It doesn't but when you're trying to get somewhere and they keep hounding you, then it starts to get a little annoying." Yang replied.

"Good point." Nora agreed.

"How does the ship look?" Pyrrha asked Jaune as Ruby climbed up to the boulder.

"It doesn't look good. At all." He confirmed.

"The whole ship's on fire!" Ruby gasped. Everyone urgently ran as fast as they could over there in the hopes that there might be survivors amongst the wreckage. They arrived at the crash site but most of the ship was a twisted heap covered in and surrounded by flames.

"I can't see any place where we can enter." Ren said as he backed away from the heat.

"Hold on a second! Let me try something…" Weiss suggested as he unsheathed Myrtenaster and switched to ice Dust ammunition. She pointed her weapon at the ground and a white colored Glyph appeared. Thrusting the tip of Myrtenaster into the center, a wave of ice billowed forth and froze the flames into brittle icicles.

"There. That should be sufficient enough for us to get inside." Weiss concluded.

"That was pretty clever thinking, Weiss." Blake complimented.

"I'm too modest to boast." Weiss smiled. The group climbed atop the wreckage to find an opening where they could enter the ship. While Pyrrha used her Polarity Semblance to move away the pieces of sharpened metal debris, Ruby spotted a good sized hole at the top where she could see the interior of the vessel.

"I found a way in!" Ruby announced to her friends as they went over to her. They suddenly felt the ship dangerously lurch with a loud creaking sound.

"That didn't sound good." Nora fearfully pointed out.

 _ **RRRRRRRRMMMMMMMMMMMMMMBBBBBBBBBBLLLLLLLL**_

They groups saw a section of the plateau beginning to crumble, threating to send the ship and them over the edge!

"DEFINETLY NOT GOOD!" Jaune panicked!

"MOVE!" Yang yelled as the teams rushed to get off the ship! They all managed to jump off of it just in time as it slid over the side and plummeted to the ground. Everyone went over to the edge and peered downward just in time to see the vessel slam into the forest below, creating an explosion that caused them to flinch.

Everyone felt a sense of dread wash over them. What if there had been people still inside it? Did they fail? Pyrrha gulped. "Do you think someone was able to make it out in time?"

"We can only hope." Weiss said.

"B-b-b-but maybe there's someone still in there, alien or human!" Ruby reasoned, her voice breaking a little. "We could still-"

"Ruby…it's too late." Yang sadly told her. She too didn't want to believe it and it hurt to tell her that but it had to be said.

"We don't know that yet!" Ruby desperately shouted.

"Ruby, we have to be realistic. _You_ have to be realistic." Blake sternly told her. "We can't save everyone."

Ruby looked like she was on the verge of tears and the rest of them could understand it all too well. Ruby was still younger than them and that meant she hadn't been fully exposed to the harsh, dangerous reality of being a Huntress. Even in the direst of situations she still had her head in the clouds. Weiss, Yang and Blake had hoped that her experience with the White Fang and Roman Torchwick would teach her that but it seemed to do no avail. Ren was about to offer his input to Ruby but then he spotted something on the ground out of the corner of his eye.

"Wait." Ren said out of the blue, garnering everyone's attention. He pointed to the ground and they saw a trail of footprints. They went over to inspect the trail. "They lead away from the ship and by the looks of it; there were at least two people." Ren observed.

Blake knelt down and ran her fingers across the imprint. "They're recent." She looked up at the trail that leads into a rocky chasm. "They've headed southeast not too long ago."

"So then there _are_ survivors!" Ruby exclaimed, overjoyed that their mission wasn't a failure.

"The footprints seem normal enough. It appears your alien theory is now null and void." Weiss told Ruby, earning the heiress a pouty look from her.

"But they could be wearing human disguises to blend in and fool us!" Nora all but blurted out. Ruby gasped in shock and realization.

Pyrrha was really starting to get tired of all this alien nonsense. "Nora, can you please just try to act-"

"Say, does anybody else hear that?" Jaune asked, unintentionally cutting Pyrrha off. Everyone stayed silent and listed closely. It was faint, but they could all hear the sounds of gunfire and the roars of Grimm echoing in the distance.

"It sounds close…I think that has to be them!" Pyrrha said.

"We gotta help them!" Ruby yelled as she instantly activated her Speed Semblance and blurred through the chasm faster than the eye could see.

"Ruby, wait!" Weiss called after her.

"C'mon! We can still catch up to her!" Yang said as she and everyone gave chase.

* * *

PLATEAU- SECRET WHITE FANG BASE

"GOD FUCKIN' DAMMIT!"

 _ **BAKOOOM**_

}SLUGFEST{ 50sp x4

The werewolves were blown away into chunky little giblets by the sheer force of Boneduster's buckshot. They had made the unfortunate mistake of trying to mob Grayson but they were clumped together, making them easy targets. But it didn't make everything lease easy in general.

They just kept coming like an unending tide of snarling horror with an instable bloodlust for fresh meat.  
Grayson retreated back into the complex as Ishi continued to provide fire support from the walls of the mining complex. Despite scoring multiple kills, they had swarmed the entire perimeter and Ishi had to fall back. He never got the chance to do so as a werebear climbed atop the wall and swatted him straight into a steel column like a fly!

Grayson tried to get over there and help Ishi up but the werebear climbed over the wall and barreled straight towards them! Grayson ducked underneath its swings, slid underneath its legs and blew them clean off with a well-placed shot from Boneduster. As it roared in pain, Grayson went over, shoved some new shells into his weapon and pressed it up against the werebear's skull. Needless to say, it was reduced to a black smear on the ground with just one trigger pull.

}TORPEDO{ 50sp

}LEGLESS{ 25sp

}SPLATTERPUNK{ 100sp

Grayson helped Ishi up but then the rest of the creatures piled into the facility and surrounded them. They roared, hissed and clawed the ground as they inched ever so closer to their prey. Grayson and Ishi ground their teeth in frustration and hopelessness. There was no way out and they couldn't possibly take out all of them at once.

This was the end.

They were going to be eaten by a horde of monsters while Sarrano would get away scott-free. Grayson couldn't believe that he was going to go out like this: stranded on a hostile, unexplored planet teeming with weremonsters.

They both looked at each other and nodded. They reloaded their weapons and got ready to fight. They might never get off this planet but if they were going to die, they would take as many of these things down with them.

As the weremonsters prepared to pounce upon them, something began to plow straight through the horde while knocking them into the air like ragdolls! Grayson and Ishi blinked in confusion as more of the creatures were literally bowled over. A red blur shot out from the pack and landed next the two, a cloud of rose petals blocking their view.

The petals fell to the ground and what Grayson and Ishi saw now and afterwards would be one of the strangest things they ever saw.

A young girl, no more than 15 years old, wearing a black and red blouse/skirt combo with black boots stood where the red blur landed as the petals danced around her like a figure from a fantasy movie. She had black hair with red highlights and had, interestingly enough, silver colored eyes.

As the duo stared in bewilderment, they noticed the weremonsters beginning to recover and were now all royally pissed off. Grayson was just about to tell the mysterious girl to run when she reached behind her back and got out what appeared to be a metal suitcase with a black and red finish.

It then instantly transformed into the biggest fucking scythe they had ever seen! It was twice her size!

"Holy-"

 _(Bad Reputation-Joan Jett)_

Grayson never got to finish as the girl launched herself at the monsters, instantly bisecting the nearest werewolf in one swing! The weremonsters instantly shifted their focus from Grayson and Ishi to the young girl in red and charged at her. Undeterred, the girl began cleave her way through them like a walking blender. Parts of the werewolves flew about everywhere as she swung her scythe with graceful efficiency despite its size. The girl ducked, weaved, dodged and danced around the monsters attacks all while decapitating, cleaving, bisecting and bifurcating them with her massive implement of death.

Grayson and Ishi watched with their mouths agape. It was hard to believe that what they were witnessing was actually happening.

The girl transformed into the red blur and again, this time scaling a crane before turning back. They saw the scythe change into some kind of rifle and the girl opened fire upon the beats, revealing it to be a high-powered, bolt action sniper rifle! Heads exploded into a shower of black ooze left and right before the girl reloaded a new clip into her weapon and fired again but this time the bullets set the creatures on fire! Another werebear sauntered over to the base of the crane and began to shake it in an attempt to tear it down. The girl jumped off the crane and began to spin her body downward with her weapon in its scythe mode, turning her into a human buzz saw. She cleaved right through the werebear, splitting it straight down the middle.

An explosion caught Grayson and Ishi's attention and the turned to their left to see more weremonsters knocked aside. As the mob began to disperse away from the cloud of smoke, they saw seven figures emerge from it and engage the monsters! The duo took note that they were older than the girl in red, probably 17 years old, and they all had fantastical weapons and powers just like her!

The 1st newcomer could only be described as a literal bombshell. Beautiful blonde hair, violet colored eyes and an impressive bust. She wore a tan jacket that covered a yellow t-shirt (which also showed off a little bit of cleavage), Black shorts with a belt, knee high boots with orange stockings, fingerless gloves and an orange scarf. She also happened to be freakishly strong as she clobbered werewolves left and right with an honest-to-god smile on her face. She used a pair of yellow colored gauntlets that were apparently powerful enough to completely cave in their heads. Her gauntlets were also wrist mounted shotguns that blew apart any creature stupid enough to attack her. A werebear attacked her from behind but she smiled as she slammed her fist into its gut with so much force it caused it to stagger. She then followed up with an uppercut and its head flew straight off! A bunch of werewolves came after her but she fired a barrage of explosive shots that sent pieces of them flying all over the place! The girl was like a freakin machine!

The 2nd one looked like she was ripped straight out of a Disney movie. Graceful white hair tied into an off-center bun with a small tiara, an elegant white dress, high heeled boots, pale skin and shimmering light blue eyes. Ishi noticed the crooked scar running down her left eye. At first, she didn't really have the look of a fighter but all of that changed when she withdrew a rapier with a revolver like mechanism installed into the hilt. They saw the mechanism rotate as the girl took up a fighting stance against several wereraptors that were charging towards her. When she swung her blade, a swath of flame erupted from it, bathing the monsters in fire while slicing and thrusting through them with little to no resistance! A crowd of werewolves surrounded her on all sides but then she pointed at the ground and a white, snowflake like symbol appeared and the girl was propelled into the air just as the monsters pounced! More of the symbols appear in the air and the girl rebounded off them like a pinball. She pointed her sword at them while making quick gestures with her free hand and multiple symbols appeared underneath the werewolves, but this time they were colored yellow. Bursts of electricity coursed through them as they shook and convulsed. But the girl wasn't done yet as she twirled through the air like a ballerina and summoned four symbols that spewed out razor sharp icicles, perforating the creatures as she gracefully landed on her feet.

The 3rd girl was quite…mysterious-looking. Amber colored eyes, jet-black hair, purple eyeshadow and a black-colored buttoned vest with a white undershirt and shorts, along with low heeled black boots and stockings fully flushed out her ensemble though Grayson thought she would look more intimidating without the oversized bow on her head. She proved to be the most nimble of them as she weaved through her foes and hacked them apart with what could only be described as a large cleaver. One of the werehogs barreled toward her but she jumped out of the way, leaving behind an exact copy of her! It turned to stone just as the werehog crashed into it, causing the monster tumble through its brethren and straight into a rock where the girl had landed on. The girl hopped off the rock and separated the cleaver into a katana with a pistol built into the hilt and stabbed the blades downward into its head while scoring accurate headshots with her pistol. The threw out the katana, now attached to a long ribbon, to the scaffoldings above and swung from them like Tarzan before summoning another clone that plummeted downwards towards the monsters and exploded into fireball, incinerating most of them while hopping back down and slicing her way back into the fray.

The 4th was quite easily the most recognizable to Grayson and Ishi since she looked like something out of 300. Her bronze armored top complete with black shorts, opera length gloves, greaves, metal tiara and short sword/buckler combo made her look like a Spartan Wonder Woman. Her emerald-colored eyes and scarlet hair tied up in a ponytail only made her look both beautiful and intimidating. None of the werewolves stood a chance against her as her short sword made quick work of them as she shielded herself from their attacks with her buckler. Her short sword switched into a spear and she flung her buckler at an incoming werebear, stunning it while she ran her spear through the creatures. She shot her hand out and her buckler started to float off the ground with a black aura around it! The buckler began to strike the werebear in the face, chest and knees as it dropped to one knee and tried to shield itself with its paws but the girl threw her spear at the werebear and it speared into its throat and right out the back of its head! She ran forward and pulled out her spear just as the werebear's body crumpled to the ground, jumping off of it and decapitated another werewolf just as her weapon transformed back into a short sword. The wereraptors surrounded the girl and leapt at her but she flung her buckler out at them, rotating in a circle around her while knocking them all down or bisecting them. Her short sword transformed into a rifle resembling an M1 Garand and nailed any weremonster that attacked. She then outstretched her arms to the pieces of debris scattered around the facility and they all started to levitate and shot towards the monsters, turning them all into horribly mangled pincushions!

The 5th and last girl was odd to say the least. She looked completely out of place with her short orange hair, turquoise eyes, sleeveless black vest with a hammer symbol on the back, white shirt with a cut-out heart shape, multicolored armor covering her midsection, pink skirt, pink fingerless gloves, and pink/white shoes. Honestly, she didn't really look all that intimidating to the duo but all of that changed when she whipped out a giant war hammer and began playing a game of Whack-a-Mole with the monsters and they were the moles! The girl was just like the blonde: she was having the time of her life ad she knocked around werewolves with a huge grin on her face. She smacked aside an incoming werehog and her war hammer transformed into a grenade launcher and fired a volley of grenades (Ishi could've sworn he saw heart symbols at the tips) blowing them apart with a series of explosions…all of which were colored pink. A charging werebear thundered towards her but the girl smiled, planted her war hammer on the ground, stood on it while striking a pose and the end of the hammer exploded! She was sent hurtling towards the werebear and swung her war hammer downwards so hard that its head was shoved straight down into its chest! A pack of werehogs rolled towards her but she switched her war hammer back into a grenade launcher but this time the barrel had be replaced by the end of the war hammer with multiple grenades sticking out at the end. With a simple pull of the trigger, 6 grenades launched out of the tube and hit the mob dead on, causing weremonster chunks to rain down from the sky. The girl giggled excitedly.

The other two were boys but the first one Grayson and Ishi saw was rather…normal. He was an average sized blonde with blue eyes, wore white and gold armor over his black hoodie, as well as wearing blue jeans with black sneakers. He didn't have any fantastical weapon that changed into a firearm just a regular sword and shield. He was quite proficient with them as he blocked any blows with his shield while following up with precise sword swings that felled his foes but other than that, there wasn't really anything that stood out. Grayson was a little bit disappointed.

The final newcomer was a step up from the blonde and looked much more interesting in comparison. This one had black hair with a streak of magenta colored highlights on the left side, his eyes just so happened to be the same color. One thing that stood out was that his choice of clothing resembled that of Chinese culture: a dark green long sleeved tailcoat with black and gold trimming along with pink cuffs. The last articles of clothing he wore were white pants and black shoes. Ishi initially presumed the boy to be of Chinese descent but he didn't appear to be of that nationality. The boy's choice of weapons was a pair of fully automatic pistols with sickle-like bayonets mounted underneath the barrels. The way the boy fought was similar to that Ultraviolet movie Grayson saw (the story made no sense; he was only in it for the action scenes). The way he flipped over the wereraptors while gunning down werewolves from the side was friggin impressive. Every time he sliced through the creatures, he fired a quick burst of his pistols at them as an effective means of crowd control. He dodged them with the grace of an acrobat and gunned them down with the precision of a gunman while cutting them apart with the lethality of an assassin. They saw him stab his blades downward into a werewolf's eyes and when a wereraptor jumped over it to attack the boy; he pointed his pistols upwards and blasted it straight out of the air. He somersaulted over the dead werewolf; ventilated two other during his flip and then killed two more werewolves by swinging his blades straight through their throats.

Grayson and Ishi continued to watch this display of one-sided ass kicking with completely stupefied expressions. They had a hard time fighting these things yet these multicolored teens were literally mopping the floor with them! This continued on for several minutes with their young rescuers bashing the seven bells out of the monsters while the duo continued to share with their jaws and eyes wide open. Finally, the last of the werecreatures was slain and the teens stood amongst the disappearing corpses. They all looked impressed with themselves as the blonde girl and the red/black haired girl high-fived each other.

They all turned to the two men standing a few feet away from them and both parties eyes met for the first time. What Team RWBY and Team JNPR didn't know was that their meeting with these two would have profound, world changing events for everyone and everything on Remnant.

To be continued…

* * *

 **There you have it folks! They finally meet for the first time!**

 **The reason why this chapter took so long to get out was that I'm trying my absolute hardest to emulate both universes fighting style. I hope it can appease some of you but don't expect anything that matches the quality of Rooster Teeth or Monty Oum (God rest his soul). But what better way to showcase their combat than fighting to the kickass tunes of Andrew W.K and Joan Jett?**

 **One major change I made to the Bulletstorm weapons was having Headhunter's functionality similar to Abigail Black's Ghost Bullet ability from Jericho and Rip Van Winkle's enchanted musket from Hellsing.**

 **One thing I should mention is that this will follow the Bulletstorm storyline very closely so it will probably be a while before Grayson and the others ever get to Vale.**

 **I will be going on break to do some more chapters for my Samurai Jack/Akame ga Kill story.**

 **Don't forget to review but please don't flame.**


	6. Deepening Mysteries

**How's it going everybody? Gun Sonata is back!**

 **Sorry this took so long to update. Life, helping out my folks and distractions in general got in the way of everything. That and working on other stories. Also, this chapter was going to be longer but I became so tired I saved the second half for next time. But in any case, he's the chapter you've all been dying to see: Grayson and Ishi meet Team RWBY and Team JNPR!**

 **Volume 5 has been another amazing experience for me and I can't wait for the next adventure in Atlas. We'll probably get to see Weiss confronter her father and maybe see Penny's creator who'll shed some light on her origins! I don't get why so many people are ripping on Volume 5. I honestly compare it to the 2003 version of Fullmetal Alchemist: It was mostly character development and drama but it also had its fair share of great fight sequences. I guess I'm just that type of guy.**

 **Review time!**

 **Junior VB: Thank goodness they did.**

 **Elusive Prey: True but if they got eaten then we wouldn't have this story!**

 **37: A match made in heaven…or hell depending on your perspective. I'm keeping that part a secret. I knew you'd like the reference!**

 **Guest #1: Good to see another fan of that series.**

 **Guest #2: Relax, that's the only Rick and Morty reference I'll put in this story.**

 **Alliance Empire: It's the most fun I've had with a shooter and it's also the most hysterical! I've got something planned for him…**

 **Mastermind: Indeed it will and that will be the main focus in the next chapter.**

 **Big Smoke: Yup. Remnant is in for a wild, and incredibly violent, ride. Read on and find out!**

 **New Universe Returns: Sorry this update took long.**

 **Guest #3: He's actually someplace else in Vale but ill reveal where in future chapters.**

 **Colossalblackening: Already answered your review in the PM.**

 **Red John: His location will be revealed in later chapters and I do plan of making a chapter detailing the events at Vale and Beacon but that won't happen until Grayson, Ruby and Co. first engage the Burnouts.**

 **NRG: Those are some clever ideas but I do have something intended for those two that will be very benefitting for the both of them. I'll keep Neo silent as she was meant to be but I did have her communicate via texting in chapter 3. I'll think about sign language. I wouldn't give up hope just yet; we might see her in future volumes!**

 **Bulletstorm and RWBY belong to their respective owners. I do not own either of them.**

* * *

Chapter 6

Deepening Mysteries

PLATEAU-SECRET WHITE FANG BASE

With the Grimm threat fully subdued, Team RWBY and Team JNPR got a good look at the man who began to walk over to them. He was tall, gruff looking individual wearing combat fatigues, had a pair of goggles around his neck and wielded a weapon of an unknown design. He also had a wild, unkempt hairstyle with a prominent 5 o'clock shadow and several scars on his face.

"Uh…thanks for the help. That was…..um…." He started, unable to find the right words on how to describe what just happened.

"Awesome? Jaw dropping? Kick ass? Unbelievable? I can keep going!" The blonde with the shotgun gauntlets quipped.

"All, I guess?" He replied. The blond grinned broadly.

"Well, we're just thankful we managed to rescue you two just in time." The small girl with the scythe said with a beaming smile.

"Yeah, same here. Thanks again for the help, Miss…?" Grayson began, holding out his hand.

"Ruby Rose." The girl introduced as she eagerly shook his hand. She gestured to the blond who hopped off a weremonster corpse. "This is my sister, Yang Xiao Long."

"Sup?" Yang greeted. Grayson raised an eyebrow as he looked at them. "You're sisters? You two look nothing alike."

"Technically we're half-sisters but still family nonetheless." Yang replied while slinging her arm over Ruby. "Never got your name by the way."

"Grayson Hunt." He said with a nod.

"Pleasure to meet you! These are my teammates and besties, Blake Belladonna and Weiss Schnee." Ruby said happily as she introduced her friends to him.

"You do know I detest being referred to that, right?" Weiss reminded her, seemingly disregarding Grayson. In contrast to Weiss, Blake politely nodded her head to Grayson with a small smile.

"So I take it the other blonde is your brother?" Grayson asked as the thumbed over to the boy with the sword and shield. Yang and Ruby instantly burst out laughing.

"What?!" He blurted out, completely off guard. "I'm not related to them! Though I can see why you kinda made that assumption. My name's Jaune Arc, in case you were wondering. These three are also my friends and teammates; Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren." Pyrrha smiled at Grayson, Nora waved her hand in greeting while Ren bowed respectively.

"You all displayed impressive skills earlier." Ishi commented as we walked up to them.

"Aw, that was nothing!" Nora beamed. "That whole fight was a walk in the par-" Nora's words died in her mouth when she and everyone else saw the other person they saved. He was around the same height as Grayson wearing the same clothing as he did. He had peach fuzz haircut and his left arm was covered in intricate tattoos but the most striking and somewhat disturbing feature was his artificial arm, leg and half his face. They all knew of bionic replacements for those that lost their limbs in accidents but this man looked _terrible._ He looked like he had been through a wood chipper and then had shoddy replacements slapped onto him. Visible sutures, exposed wounds and haphazard skin grafts made his appearance all the more chilling to them. An occasional wince from him was a sign that he was in a great deal of pain.

Noticing the teens frightened looks and Ishi's growing discomfort of being stared at, Grayson cleared his throat. "* _Ahem_ * This is my friend, Ishi Sato. Don't let his appearance scare you; he's a good man at heart."

"Oh! Uh, nice to meet you!" Ruby quickly said, realizing she might've accidently offended him by gawking at his artificial arm, leg and a chunk of his head. She couldn't help but feel a tad scared by his appearance. Ishi looked like some kind of cyber-zombie from GLOOM (a videogame that Yang _never_ let her play).

Weiss was appalled at the abhorrent state of the man's artificial limbs. It looked like he had them installed by some back alley reprobate for goodness sake! Atlas was the leading manufacturer of prosthetic limbs so hadn't this man gone to them instead? "Are you two okay?" She inquired.

"Well, aside from a couple of bruises and scrapes from those weremonsters, we're just dandy." Grayson said with a grin.

The teams raised their eyebrows in confusion. Did they just hear that? "Weremonsters? You mean the Grimm, right?" Jaune questioned.

"That is what they're called?" Ishi asked.

This was starting to weird everybody out. How could these two not know anything about the Creatures of Grimm? "You don't know what Grimm are? Aren't you two Huntsmen?" Jaune pressed further.

"Are we talking deer hunters or big game hunters?" Grayson asked, further confusing them all.

"Pfffffft, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Yang laughed. "Okay guys, you got us good. Very funny!" Her only response came in the form of Grayson and Ishi's blank looks. Yang's smile faded. "Oh…you two aren't kidding, are you?"

Grayson and Ishi looked at each other, unsure of how to answer. "You could say that we are not from around here." Ishi said.

"You mean you guys were born under a rock?" Nora said, absentmindedly.

"Nora…" Ren chided.

"What she _meant_ to say was that you both hail from a rural island, I presume?" Pyrrha corrected her.

"Erm…not exactly." Grayson answered. He and Ishi still weren't sure how to break the news that they came from outer space. These kids seemed to have no knowledge of the Confederation which only furthered their curiosity on just how isolated these people were.

"Okay, I think this little game you two are playing has run its course." Weiss said as she walked over to them. "It's literally impossible for anyone to not know anything about the Grimm so either you're making fun of us or you're withholding information."

She then pointed her finger directly up at Grayson's face (he was taller than her). "So what's the _real_ story? You had to have come from one of the Four Kingdoms. Are you Huntsmen from Mistral or Vacuo? You certainly don't seem to be from Vale and certainly not Atlas due to your incredibly dirty attire. You two obviously must be one of those uncouth freelance Huntsmen looking to line their pockets with Lien-" Her ramblings were interrupted when Grayson lightly swatted her hand out of his face. He _hated_ these rich, bratty, snobby types.

"Look, kid. First off, I don't understand any of the horseshit yer yappin at me."

Her eyes widened in shock, offended at this man's language. "Wha-"

"Second, if you stick your finger in my face again, I'm gonna snap the rest of them off and jam them into your ass."

Yang and Nora couldn't help but snicker as their friend was getting roasted by this guy. He was the type that didn't take crap from anybody. Ruby felt a little uncomfortable hearing such bad words while the others were a little bit cautious that this man would become violent. Weiss's mouth was completely agape. "HOW DARE Y-"

"Third, we don't know jack shit about this planet. We just crash landed here a while ago!"

"Crash landed?" Blake repeated as she turned to the others who had the same looks of growing realization. "You mean…you all came from that ship earlier?"

' _Hoo boy.'_ Grayson thought as he and Ishi felt the teens expectant gazes solely focused on them. Truth be told, they had no idea what would happen if they told them they came from another world where humanity colonized the stars. They were actually worried how they would all react. But there was no point in lying to them at this rate so they might as well just tell them.

"Yeah. We did and we're not from this world." Grayson answered. Now was the moment of truth. Would they believe them or not?

The teens all shared looks of disbelief and incredulity. But Ruby's was one of pure excitement and amazement as she began jumping up and down uncontrollably while squeeing like a rabid fangirl. "Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh you're them! You're the aliens! I was right all along!" Ruby exclaimed.

Grayson and Ishi blinked in confusion. They weren't expecting this kind of reaction. "We-" Grayson began but was then interrupted by Nora who jumped in front of Ruby.

"PLEASE! DO NOT EAT US!" She hollered while holding up her hands like she was under arrest. This garner more confused looks from the pair, as well as the others. "THE PEOPLE OF REMNANT AREN'T YOUR ENEMY! WE ARE NOT FOOD!"

"I can assure you, we are not aliens." Ishi told her, wanting to clear up any misconceptions. Ruby wasn't buying it.

"Oh, really? How do we now those aren't disguises to blend in?" Ruby said, eyeing them suspiciously.

"Trust me. If we were _really_ aliens, you'd probably already know by now." Grayson assured her. Before he could react, Ruby teleported right in front of him, nearly causing him to fall over backwards in surprise!

"ButIdon'tknowsoareyoualiensornot?!" Ruby asked frantically as she began zipping around him in search of something. "Where's the zipper? Are you wearing a latex max? Is this a full body suit? Do you have green skin and antenna? TellmetellmetellmetellmetellmeTELLME!"

"What is your malfunction, shrimp?!" Grayson exasperated as he tried to back away from the hyperactive half-pint. Yang went over and yanked Ruby away from Grayson before she could latch onto him like a crazed marmoset.

"Take it easy, Sis." She said while giving her a pat on the back. "These guys ain't aliens. But are you two seriously telling the truth? You really aren't from Remnant at all?"

"Remnant of what?" Grayson asked.

"Is that the name of your planet?" Ishi inquired.

"Yeah it is. Wow, you guys really come from outer space?" Jaune said in amazement. "You look just like us!" He didn't notice the concerned look Blake gave him.

"That means you're our intergalactic cousins!" Nora beamed as she leapt over and pulled Ishi into a bear hug. "Welcome to Remnant!"

"Urk! The feeling's…mutual." Ishi croaked as her hug got tighter and tighter. This girl was _freakishly_ strong for her age.

"All of you seriously believe this?" Weiss asked everyone present. It was evident that she wasn't buying Grayson and Ishi's story. "It's clearly obvious that they're lying!"

"I think they may be telling the truth, Weiss. Then again…" Ren began as he looked to the pair. "Do two have Auras and Semblances? Is there Dust where you come from?"

"The first two went right over heads but what did you mean by 'dust'?" Grayson answered.

"Our energy source?" Weiss elaborated. "It powers our machinery, homes, vehicles, weaponry; it's essentially a part of our lives."

The two men stared as Weiss as if she was mentally insane. "So everything on this planet runs on…just plain old dust?" Grayson asked, trying to make sense of this.

" 'Plain old dust'?! It's the most valuable resource on Remnant! Humanity would be rendered extinct without it and why are you still looking at me like that?" She demanded at Grayson and Ishi who still wore confused expressions.

Grayson threw up his arms as he shook his head. "Whole planet's full of lunatics…" He muttered. He felt Ruby give him a reassuring pat on the arm.

"It's alright. Weiss is like that sometimes." She told him. Grayson leaned in and whispered into her ear. "Hope you got a butt-ton of Prozac on ya."

Weiss was just about to let loose another tirade at them but thankfully, Blake decided to step in. "Weiss, I think there's been a miscommunication. They think you mean the _other_ kind of dust."

"What other kind could I possibly mea-" Weiss stopped herself as she slowly realized what Blake was getting at. She smacked her forehead. "Ohhhhhhh. I see now."

Ishi noticed a small vial of the flammable multicolored sand lying by his foot. He picked it up and inspected it before regarding Weiss. "Is this what you're referring to?"

"Exactly." Weiss affirmed. Pyrrha had now taken an interest in these men who seemed to have no knowledge of anything on Remnant and it intrigued her to no end. "So you don't seem to know about Dust, do you happen to know anything about Auras and Semblances?"

"Don't have a clue what those are and to answer your question, Renny, we don't have those." Grayson answered, regarding both Pyrrha and Ren who had a confused look on his face at the nickname "Renny."

"So…where do you guys come from?" Yang asked the question that was on everybody's mind.

Grayson looked to Ishi who was deep in thought before eventually looking at him and nodding. Already knowing what Ishi meant, Grayson tapped a couple of buttons on his Leash and then turned to the kids.

"Hold onto your butts." He said as he pressed a button. A large holographic map suddenly materialized out of the device on his hand and showed a multitude of stars and colorful nebulas in a swirling spiral. Team RWBY and Team JNPR's mouths hung open in stunned awe.

"This is the Milky Way Galaxy. It is a system comprised of over 400 billion stars and 100 billion planets." Ishi explained to the mesmerized group.

"T-t-t-t-t-that many?!" Ruby stammered. Her brain felt like it was going to explode.

"Yup." Grayson answered as he tapped the left part of the galaxy with his finger which then zoomed in on a planet that bared a striking resemblance to Remnant! "And this little blue pearl is our home: Earth."

"Woah! It looks so much like our planet!" Jaune exclaimed.

"And look! Your moon's still in one piece!" Nora pointed out. Earth's moon was still whole, unlike theirs.

"So then….there's actually another civilization outside of Remnant?" Pyrrha gasped in amazement.

"Correct." Ishi confirmed. "Since then, we have explored the farthest reaches of space and colonized over 486 million planets."

"That's incredible! You guys are actually able to travel to different planets and cruise around in space!?" Yang eagerly asked.

"Bingo!" Grayson replied. "But why haven't you guys made your own ships and satellites? You should be able to, right?"

"That's because Dust has its limitations. If it tries to leave our atmosphere, it evaporates almost instantaneously. Our knowledge of space is actually slim and none to be honest." Blake explained.

"So why don't you just use something else besides Dust? I'm sure you guys can just swap it out for a substitute." Grayson suggested.

The teams looked at each other, unsure of how to answer. "I don't think there is." Blake answered.

"Besides, what could we possibly replace it with?" Pyrrha guessed, shrugging.

Grayson raised an eyebrow in confusion before plucking the vial of red colored dust out of Ishi's hand. He studied it carefully before turning his attention back to the others. "So you kids are tellin me that this stuff is the only source of fuel on your planet?"

"We're all teens, you know." Nora reminded him with a pout.

Ren decided to answer that question since Nora was being…Nora. "If there was any other resource on Remnant besides Dust, we would've discovered it a long time ago. I'm guessing there's no Dust on Earth or any of the planets your civilization has explored?"

"Correct. This is our first time seeing something like this. Our people haven't found this 'Dust' on any of the planets we've explored." Ishi answered. This came as a genuine surprise to the Huntsmen and Huntresses. There was no Dust where they came from? It was hard to believe they found other sources of fuel, one that actually allowed them to travel amongst the stars. But how come Remnant only had Dust and they didn't? They were brought out of their thoughts when Grayson called out, "You gonna weigh in on this, Snowflake?"

Everyone looked to Weiss whose mouth was completely agape and her eyes as wide as dinner plates. Ruby couldn't help but snicker.

"I think you might've overwhelmed her." Pyrrha said.

"At least it shut her up." Grayson replied.

"Let me see if I can snap her out of it." Yang suggested as she walked over to her. She stuck her pinky finger into her mouth and then shoved it right into the left ear of the heiress. It brought back to reality in the worst way possible.

"KYAAAAAAAAA! W-W-W-W-W-WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" She shrieked as she wiped her ear.

"Well, you were zoning out and always I wanted to do that to you for a _looooooong_ time." Yang teased as she wagged her saliva coated pinky. Fuming, Weiss decided to chew out Yang later for that revolting act and instead focused back to the matter at hand. She regarded Grayson and Ishi warily.

"Is it true? You two are really from another planet?" They gave her a look that told her she already knew the answer. At first, Weiss wanted to scoff at that notion and still claim that they were lying. But the evidence was continuing to stack up and she could no longer deny it any longer. These men truly did come from a civilization from beyond the stars. She could only manage a shaky nod in acceptance.

"So you said before that Earth colonized millions of planets. Did you meet any aliens on them?" Jaune asked.

"Oh, oh, oh! Didja, didja, didja, didja, didja!?" Ruby squealed as she shook with excitement.

"Well…yes." Grayson answered.

Several small gasps came from some of the team members while Ruby looked like she was going to explode with a face splitting smile.

"And no. Grayson finished. Ruby smiled instantly disappeared and was replaced with confusion and disappointment.

"On some planets we discovered some alien animals but they weren't exactly intelligent, ya know what I mean? These planets had all sorts of 'em but they didn't have the same smarts as a human." Grayson elaborated.

"The correct term is Xenofauna." Ishi said to him. Grayson rolled his eyes.

"So if your people hadn't discovered any alien species that have the same intelligence as yours then what does that make us, then?" Blake inquired.

"See, here's the thing." Grayson started as he panned the map out on his Leash back to the rest of the Milky Way Galaxy. "Most of the galaxy is still unexplored. We've barely scratched the surface as it is. Your planet is located at the end. The last planet in the galaxy." He then tapped a small dot at the very edge of the map, zooming in to reveal Remnant.

"We're that far out in the boonies?" Yang said as she scratched the back of her head.

"Yes. But your planet now holds a significant place in the galaxy. As it stands, you are the first intelligent, fully sentient species ever encountered in our recorded history." Ishi revealed.

Everyone was stunned to hear that. This was huge. This was bigger than any of them could even image. They had actually made contact with another group of humans who had achieved intergalactic travel, something that was impossible for the people of Remnant. But Grayson and Ishi's civilization were able to and this was their first time meeting another group of humans like them. The teams couldn't even begin to image how everyone on Remnant would react to that news, let alone believe them.

Blake however, felt herself become increasingly worried. While she was fascinated by everything she had just heard, she fretted how Earth would react to the Faunus. Would they embrace their species and work towards achieving equality while treating them with dignity or would the Faunus once again be the subject of racism and discrimination just like with Remnant?

"So that pretty much means if you guys think about it, _you're_ the aliens." Grayson added with a smirk.

"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!" Ruby sqeaked.

"MIND. _BLOWN_." Nora gasped as she gripped the sides of her head.

"That…actually sounds about right." Jaune said, strangely agreeing with them.

"That's amazing!" Ruby said with joy. "So is it just you two or are there others from Earth who came with you?"

Grayson's smile vanished. He looked down at his feet with a look of remorse, guilt, and sorrow. Ruby was immediately concerned as well as everyone else. Ishi saw that most of them were now looking at him and could only sigh.

"There were two others with us. Our friends. They…did not survive the crash." Ishi solemnly explained, deciding to spare the group the gory details of how his comrades had been mauled to death by the Grimm.

The teams felt absolutely horrible. A sense of sadness and failure coursed through their minds as the deaths weighed heavily on them. Although Blake was right that they couldn't save everyone, it was still a huge emotional blow to them all. Ruby was taking it the worst. She gripped the sides of her skirt as hard as she could while shutting her eyes as hard as she could to keep the tears from leaking out. If she and the others had been just a little bit faster and hadn't been held up by Grimm, they could've saved Grayson and Ishi's friends. How could she call herself a Huntress if she couldn't save them?

"We're so sorry for your loss…" Pyrrha expressed her deepest condolences. The two of them didn't say a word; they were busy mourning their fallen friends. They all stood in silence for a few seconds.

"Um…I know this is a really bad time to be asking this, I really do feel for you guys, but do you know anything about that giant ship that came crashing down after you showed up?" Yang asked.

That question snapped Grayson out of his funk and made him think long and hard about it. From what he and Ishi could tell, the inhabitants of this planet knew nothing about the rest of the galaxy, even the Confederacy for that matter. This was his best chance to warn them just how royally fucked up the Confederacy was and maybe prevent Sarrano from fooling them into thinking he was the good guy. The more people knew that he was a murderous psycho, the better.

"The ship you're talking about is a battle cruiser known as the Ulysses. On board that ship was a sociopathic general by the name of Victor Sarrano." Grayson explained.

"Hold on, 'sociopathic general'?" Yang repeated with everyone growing concerned looks.

"Bingo. Any war crimes or atrocities you can think of, he's done them all. The worst part is that he actually _enjoys it_ and he doesn't give a shit about who he hurts to get his way. He's part of our so called 'government' known as the Confederacy. It's a horribly corrupt dictatorship that's had a stranglehold on the galaxy for as long as I can remember." Grayson informed.

"And Sarrano is the leader." Ishi said. "He may hold the rank of general but that's in name only. He rules the Confederacy with an iron fist."

Everyone was not expecting to hear any of this. They presumed that Earth's government would be like The Four Kingdoms but they were proven terribly wrong after hearing Grayson's description. Some of them were actually scared. If this Confederacy was able to master interstellar travel then who knows what they were capable of? And judging from what they knew about this Sarrano character, he could be best described as an "evil" version of General Ironwood. It seemed that the stakes had become higher now that it had been made clear that the leader of a corrupt government from another civilization had crash landed on their isolated planet. But the bigger question was how did it crash here in the first place?

"So what happened to the Ulysses? That whole thing was on fire." Ruby asked.

Grayson knew that he had to tell the truth about how all of this happened but how would they take it? There was only one way to find out.

To be continued…

* * *

 **Hope it was everything you guys were expecting!**

 **This was a doozy to write as I had to find the right reactions for the RWBY and Bulletstorm cast as well as an explanation for each other's respective planets. I just hope I got it right. You guys might be wondering why the Teams haven't seen the dead White Fang bodies yet. That's because the multitude of dead Grimm are obscuring them but as we all know, Grimm bodies disappear over time.**

 **That matter will be addressed in the next chapter this month! Will Ruby and the others help them or not? Bit of a spoiler warning for you guys, when the Groups do meet up the general, Sarrano will be especially cruel towards Jaune and Blake for obvious reasons.**

 **Don't forget to review but please don't flame.**


	7. Judgement

**Lucky number seven!**

 **I was originally going to have this out like a week ago but snowmobiling got in the way. It's a great hobby.**

 **Review time!**

 **37: Believe me, things are gonna get a whole lot cooler when she eventually joins.**

 **Shadowdispencer: Not too sure about that.**

 **Junior VB: Thanks!**

 **Guest #1: They won't be given an Aura or a Semblance, only beings on Remnant can have them.**

 **New Universe returns: Good to see we have something in common, it was the same for me!**

 **A great suggestion, I'll see if I can implement it in the next chapter.**

 **Guest #2: They're gonna find out right now…**

 **Elusive Prey: Thanks for all the encouraging comments! There actually is a fic here if you look for it and don't give up on yourself. You may never know if you don't try.**

 **Guest #3: If it was dead, I would've put up a notification.**

 **Colossalblackening: I wanted to but writers fatigue was catching up to me.**

 **Guest #4: No love for my other fics, huh?**

 **Red John: Read on and find out what happens…**

 **Mastermind: Here it is!**

 **Wayward Son: Wow. Those are some pretty good scenes with fantastic homages. Also, I totally agree with your opinion concerning Torchwick. That was completely out of nowhere and just felt dumb. Concerning what I will do about them, you'll have to read the authors notes at the end.**

 **Koruto baruro: I'm not a Stephen King guy and the It movies are probably the only thing I'll see from him. That being said, I would greatly appreciate if you left a review concerning this story in the future.**

 **RWBY and Bulletstorm belong to their respective owners. I do not own either of them.**

* * *

Chapter 7

Judgement

PLATEAU-SECRET WHITE FANG BASE

"That's because we attacked it." Grayson answered Ruby.

"You did? You guys aren't with the Confederacy?" Ruby asked again.

"Hell no, Rubes." Grayson answered. "Me, Ishi and the rest of our friends used to work for them with pie-eyed dreams of protecting the galaxy from various criminals and exploring new planets. But that was before we eventually found out that it was a cesspit of lies and fascism. After we discovered the truth, we split from the Confederacy and became space pirates."

"Pirates in space? Awesome!" Nora beamed.

"So you're criminals?" Weiss pressed as she narrowed her eyes suspiciously at them.

"In a way, yes. But we're not the kind of pirates you're thinking of. We only targeted Confederate supply liners, munition stockpiles, military outposts, prison camps, mining facilities, basically anything we could do to strike a major blow to their operations." Ishi explained.

"Oh, I get it now! You're one of those heroic rouges fighting against an evil empire and making the galaxy a better place!" Ruby deduced with starry eyes.

That had made Grayson and Ishi feel very uncomfortable. They were _NOT_ heroes. They were anything but. In reality, they were formerly assassins who killed god knows how many innocent people before finding out that they were tricked into killing those who directly opposed the Confederacy. Sure, the whole sabotage thing they did was to piss off the Confederacy and free anybody that was suffering under their rule but that was still no excuse for what they previously did.

"Uh…yeah, that's totally what we are." Grayson said, although it made him sick to say that. He hated lying to these kids.

"So I'm guessing you attacked the Ulysses because this Sarrano was on board?" Ren said.

"True, but how we got here is another story." Grayson began. "You see, we just gone done taking care of some bounty hunter who was after us. Our position became compromised however; Ishi had to warp us as far away as he possible could."

"The only problem was that I had entered in the wrong coordinates in my haste and unknowingly warped us to your planet's orbit." Ishi added.

"So you came here by accident? Wasn't expecting that." Nora said as she scratched the back of her head.

"When we came out of warp, we saw the Confederation's flagship right in front of us. We all knew that Sarrano was on board and this was our only chance to hit two birds with one stone so we attacked with it everything in our ship's arsenal we ended up shooting each other down and that's brings us to where we are now." Grayson finished.

"WOW! That must've been an amazing space battle!" Ruby said as she pumped her fists.

"It was. Expect for two things…" Ishi started as he cast a displeasing look towards Grayson. The other man began to sweat and he looked at Ishi worriedly, knowing what was about to come. "He previously wanted to talk to us and _you_ gave the order to attack while completely drunk."

"What?!" Almost everyone exclaimed.

"Oh, what a shock!" Weiss scoffed with thinly veiled sarcasm and anger.

"Dude, not cool." Yang said while shaking her head.

"So _that_ explains the heavy scent of liquor I smell." Ren added.

' _Just like uncle Qrow…'_ Ruby thought tiredly as she rolled her eyes.

"You were seriously drunk when that happened!? Wouldn't that make it a space DUI?" Jaune asked absentmindedly.

"Why did you attack when Sarrano wanted to talk it out first?" Blake demanded.

"Do you have any idea how much chaos and destruction you've caused to our planet by your drunken actions?!" Weiss angrily yelled at him. "How irresponsible are you?!"

Grayson sighed. "Okay, fine. I admit it. It was a stupid, reckless stunt but believe me when I say that it was _never_ my intention to get the people of Remnant involved. Had any of us known that there was another civilization living on this planet then I never would've attacked the Ulysses, even if I was drunk." He explained truthfully. This seemed to calm some of them down but Weiss still remained livid.

"And just so you all know, that whole 'talk' thing was a load of bullshit. Sarrano was gonna open fire on us the second we let our guard down. He's done it a thousand times before and this time would be no different." Grayson said with a serious expression. He then turned to Ishi. "And you _know_ that."

Ishi could only grunt in agreement. Grayson did have a point but they still should've escaped while they had the chance. It would've been a much prudent option that could've prevented Rell and Oliver's deaths and his disfigurement.

"So, inebriation aside, you said that you saw the Ulysses when you came out of warp. What was Sarrano doing all the way out here if nobody knows about our planet?" Pyrrha inquired.

Grayson found himself thinking over the same question he had just asked Ishi half an hour ago. There was no way this could've been a freak coincidence. Sarrano wouldn't travel all the way to the other end of the Milky Way Galaxy just to go sightseeing. There had to have been a reason for him to come out this far. One way or another, Grayson was going to get to the bottom of it. "Honestly, I've got no clue but I'm gonna find out." He replied with a shrug.

"HOLY MOLY!" Everyone suddenly heard Nora shout! Her infinitely cheerful expression was replaced with one of pure fear as everyone followed her gaze to the entrance of the facility, almost all of them gasping in horror except for Grayson and Ishi.

From outside the encampment, the bodies of the Grimm had finally dissipated to reveal dozens of horribly mutilated bodies, all of them belonging to the White Fang! Most of the corpses had been gruesomely immolated, blown to pieces, missing their heads; one head still had its spinal cord intact! The ground was literally soaked with their blood, painting a nightmarish picture for the Huntsmen and Huntresses.

Jaune doubled over and began to vomit. Ruby's heart pounded against her chest as her legs shook like jelly. Nora staggered away in numb shock. Blake began to hyperventilate. The others stared in complete fright at what they were seeing. Ishi could tell that Grayson didn't really understand their reactions and it was making the cyborg very worried. These youths had obviously not been exposed to this and if Grayson said the wrong thing, they would distrust the both of them almost immediately.

"T-t-t-the W-White Fang!? H-he-here!? W-why?!" Blake stammered, the sight of her slaughtered people would scar her for life.

"We stumbled upon their base a while ago." Ishi said as he pointed to the silo behind the group. They all looked behind them to see the White Fang's symbol emblazoned upon it.

"They had an outpost all the way out here?!" Weiss shouted in confusion.

"The Grimm must've discovered their location." Ren deduced. The grisly display was causing him to have flashbacks of when a certain Grimm destroyed his village.

"Oh, that wasn't the Grimm, we handled those guys." Grayson told them. Ishi scrunched his eyes shut as hard as he could. _'Fuck.'_ He mentally swore.

Everyone stared at Grayson with wide eyed, almost mortified looks. "Y- _you_ killed them?" Ruby fearfully asked.

"Yup!" He said jovially, further horrifying them. "We got ambushed by them a while ago but no worries, we took all those jagoffs down before they even knew what hit 'em. You shoulda seen the looks on their stupid faces-"

 _SMACK_

Grayson was so caught up in his gloating that he never noticed Blake, with a furious look, went right up to him and slapped him across so face so hard that it actually caused to stagger a little! "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" Blake angrily screamed at him. "WHY DID YOU DO THAT?!"

Grayson blinked in confusion as he held his burning cheek. "Wha- kid, these guys were trying to kill us! We were only defending ourselves!"

"But you went too far!" Jaune countered, after he finished throwing up.

"Yeah! All you had to do was just knock them out!" Nora reasoned.

Grayson wasn't sure what they were getting at until he began to see what was going on. "Oh for the love of Christ, are you all kiddin' me with this shit right now? You pulverize these Grimm things but you much such a big deal outta this!?"

" _Big deal_?!" Yang repeated incredulously. "We only kill monsters, not people!"

"We don't do this sort of thing! We always disarm them then just let the police take care of them!" Ruby added, her voice shaking with fright. Weiss continued to stare at the mutilated bodies, a part of her actually _wishing_ she stayed in Atlas.

"These guys wanted our heads on a goddamn stick! We had to fight back!" Grayson stated, trying to make these kids see some sense to this.

"BUT YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO KILL THEM!" Blake shouted. "THERE WAS NO NEED TO BUTCHER ANY OF THEM!"

That did it. Grayson was getting pretty sick of this "Batman Rule" bullshit. "LISTEN, DAMN IT! THEY WERE GOING TO FUCKING KILL US! YOU HEAR ME?!"Grayson roared at Blake, startling the others with his sudden outburst and language. "IF WE DIDN'T DEFEND OURSELVES THEN THEY WOULD PUT A FUCKING BULLET THROUGH OUR SKULLS! WE HAD NO CHOICE! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU GETTING SO PISSED FOR?!"

Her lips curled into a snarl, Blake began to reach for Gambol Shroud-

"She is one of them." Ishi said out of the blue. Grayson turned to Ishi with a look of confusion on his face while Blake looked shocked. The others were surprised. Did he somehow know that Blake was a Faunus?

"How…?" Grayson began.

"Her DNA is exactly the same as these 'White Fang'." He revealed. Blake felt her blood run cold. Sato must've had some kind of scanning technology. She hung her head just as Grayson looked at her with confusion and suspicion. She hated those looks.

But it was nothing compared to how much she hated the situation right now. As much as Blake resented the White Fang for using violent, forceful means to achieve equality when there were more peaceful alternatives, she would never advocate killing them. She had seen too many of her kin cut down in botched raids during her time as a member. She had hoped that she could stop them through non-lethal means but now it seemed that reality had showed her that some things were never that easy.

Judging by how Ishi revealed her linage, they had no idea what the Faunus were and now she was faced with the difficult decision to reveal what she really was to Grayson. She was scared of his reaction and she was furious at him for cutting down her people but maybe if she showed him proof, he could understand the weight of his actions.

Blake's friends regarded her with worried looks as she slowly undid the bow on her head. Grayson's eyes widened as she slipped off the bow to reveal a par of cat ears, as black as her hair, resting atop her head that had been previously concealed by the bow. Blake prepared for the worst: Grayson becoming angry and immediately hostile.

However, Blake saw that Grayson had look of steadily growing realization on his face. "Oh…."

He looked over to the others who now looked very wary and distrustful of him, maybe even a little bit fearful; some of them slowly going for their weapons. Now realizing just what he had exposed these kids to, he began to wander away from them as he needed some much needed space to figure out what he should do. "Fuuuuuuuuuuck….." He silently muttered as he ran his hands through his hair.

Ishi sighed. This was a problem that Grayson had for a long time after they found out the truth about the Confederacy. He had no qualms about killing the worst kind of scum humanity had to offer but when it unintentionally affected anyone who was completely innocent, it made him feel horrible. And considering when Dead Echo learned they had been killing innocent people, it was not hard to feel some level of sympathy for him.

"Grayson is prone to violent tendencies." Ishi told the group. "Some of which he can't control." The Huntsmen and Huntresses expressions were unreadable. They weren't sure what course of action to take at this point.

Grayson stood a few feet away from them, lost in his own thoughts. So far the situation and turned out to be completely pear-shaped than he originally thought. He had dragged a lost civilization into his vendetta with Sarrano, traumatized a bunch of multicolored teenage warriors and quite possibly made himself look like a psycho murderer to them. Bad luck just seemed to be piling on top of him more and more.

What he needed to focus on was getting Ishi a much needed recharge and leave Remnant so he can get that AI out of his friend's mind. But they had no clue where they were or even if they would survive the next Grimm attack. Looking over his shoulder, he knew that before he could help Ishi, he had to unfuck this situation _right now._

We walked back to the others who still regarded him suspiciously. Yang moved defensively closer to her sister in the event this lunatic tried to pull something. Grayson swallowed a lump in his throat before speaking.

"Look, I know what we did and we're sorry you had to see all that but you have to understand that things are very different where we come from. It's kill or be killed, there is no justice anymore. Not since the Confederacy took over." Grayson explained in a calm manner, the opposite of his previous outburst. This seemed to calm some of them down but made them more worried about the Confederacy.

"I know some of you just want to throw us in whatever jail you have here but please hear me out…my friend is _dying."_ That last part immediately had everyone concerned as they looked at Ishi.

"Ishi was so badly injured in the crash that we had to replace most of his limbs but his brain took the most damage. My other friend, our ship's doctor, managed to restore most of what was lost but he had to install our Ship's artificial intelligence into Ishi's head to as a replacement for any brain matter he lost. But now that AI is trying to take control of his mind and if it does, I lose the only friend I have left." He said desperately. Any disapproving opinions everyone had about these two had done a complete 180. They no longer saw a lunatic but a desperate man who only wanted to save his friend. But why would anybody be so crazy enough to actually put Artificial Intelligence into someone's brain?

"The only way I can help him now is to get him off world and to some ex-Confederate bioengineers that can remove the AI out of his head. But we can't do it by ourselves. We don't know anything about Remnant, how it works, the lay of the land, or even the Grimm which I doubt we'll survive the next encounter. We…." Grayson trailed off as he hung his head. He didn't want to beg but he and Ishi were in dire straits and wanted to desperately make up for his friend's condition.

"We need your help." He said with a pleading look in his eyes.

For a while nobody said a thing. They had calmed down after his explanation and plea but were now faced with a tough choice: help them or take them in to be arrested. Some of the members felt terrible for Grayson and Ishi while Weiss was somewhat less sympathetic considering the situation. Jaune and Ruby looked at each other with uncertainty. They wanted to make their decision right now but being each Team's respective leaders, it would be best if they talked it over with their friends.

"Erm…we kinda need to talk this over with each other first." Jaune said to Grayson as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Let me guess, you're gonna huddle together in a little circle while we await our fate?" Grayson dryly replied with an eye roll.

"No! What made you think that?" Ruby answered quickly as to not dishearten him. She forced a smile though Grayson could see that she was trying a little bit too hard.

"Urg!" Everyone heard Ishi grunt in pain as they saw him clutch the side of his head. Grayson ran over to him and sat Ishi down on a nearby crate. "Look, whatever you guys need to talk about, do it quick. My friend's running on borrowed time." He urgently told the others

"R-r-right." Jaune hastily said as the he and the others walked a few feet away from them and began to have their group discussion. Gray planted a hand on Ishi's shoulder as his friend breathed deeply; sweat rolling down his face.

"Is it getting worse?"

"Yes. The pain is almost unbearable."

"I know, man. I know but we're gonna get out of here. Just stay strong, 'kay?"

"I'll try my hardest…that's the first time I've ever seen you beg like that."

"I ain't too proud of it but I'm desperate at this point. Look, if they decide to help us we can't let them know or tell them that we used to be assassins or we're completely fucked."

"Agreed. We'd lose their trust if we did."

The duo looked over to the others who were closely huddled and appeared to be in a heated debate.

"Do you think they'll help us?" Ishi wondered.

"What other choice do we have?" Grayson sighed.

* * *

"We should be turning these thugs in to the authorities!" Weiss firmly stated.

"But didn't you hear what Gray said? Ishi's dying! We can't just ditch 'em, we have to help 'em! Isn't that what we do?" Nora said.

"Help them!?" Weiss said incredulously. She pointed to the dead White Fang soldiers. _"They're murderers!"_

"Now hold on a minuet." Pyrrha interjected. "Yes, they did kill them but Grayson and Ishi were only defending themselves."

"It still doesn't make it right." Blake pointed out.

"I know that. I'm just saying that there's a difference between being forced into difficult circumstances and murdering." Pyrrha elaborated.

"After all, it was only going to be a matter of time before we had to do the same." Ren added.

"W-what?" Ruby balked.

"What's _that_ supposed to mean?" Weiss demanded.

"When you all joined Beacon, did any of you think we were just exclusively slaying Grimm?" Ren asked them rhetorically.

"Well, that's what the academies were made for, right?" Jaune guessed, unsure of when his friend was getting at.

"Not exactly. Sooner or later we were going to have to resort to deadly force in the event we have to protect someone." Ren explained to them. "We couldn't go on forever just knocking our enemies out."

"But it worked out so well when my team fought the White Fang." Yang reminded him.

"I don't want to sound demeaning, but I think you were all very lucky to do so." Ren stated, trying his best not to sound condescending.

"Besides, it was only going to be a matter of time before Ms. Goodwitch would eventually break the news to us. It would have to be something we had to face and accept if we were put into a dangerous situation where we couldn't just disarm or incapacitate any non-Grimm enemies." Pyrrha said with a mix of seriousness and reluctant acceptance in her voice.

For a while, the others let this fact sink in. They did have a point but could they really take a life? They came to Beacon to protect Remnant from the Grimm but they didn't think that they would eventually be forced to actually use to deadly force. This was something they weren't prepared for and weren't sure what to do if it ever came to them. Everyone was silent until Yang spoke.

"I say we help them." She affirmed. "I know they killed a bunch of guys but they're not like, you know, 'pure evil'. Things are just really messed up where they come from but it doesn't mean that they're bad. Besides, we can't just leave Ishi twisting in the wind. If we just hauled them off to jail after Gray begged us to help them and let Ishi's mind get taken over…I don't think I could live with myself if I did that. Could any of you?"

Yang had a point. If they didn't help him then they would be condemning Ishi to a fate worse than death so that left taking them in out of the question.

"Well…maybe if we do help them then they could tell us more about Earth, the galaxy and the Confederacy." Jaune suggested.

"That's a good idea. We could use that information to warn Ozpin and the other Kingdoms about just how dangerous this Confederacy is." Pyrrha added.

"Considering if they believe us." Blake commented.

"And we could tell them all about Remnant in return!" Ruby chimed in.

"I can't believe this!" Weiss almost shouted. "How do we know they're not tricking us? They could be waiting to stab us in the back the second we let our guard down!"

"Well they haven't tried to shoot us yet so that's gotta be something, right?" Nora said.

The others looked to Ruby and Jaune. The two of them glanced at each other before brainstorming a solution to this predicament.

* * *

2 MINUETS LATER

Grayson and Ishi anxiously waited for the group come to a conclusion. They hoped the others would come to a reasonable comprise after all the shit Grayson put them through. He felt bad about everything and now not only had to make it all up to Ishi, but the people of this planet as well.

The duo saw everyone walking back to them and held their breaths.

Ruby was the first speak. "Okay, so we all talked it over and we all agreed that we can't apprehend you two. Although you two did take away several lives, we understand that it was all in self-defense. Your friend needs help and it's our duty to lend a hand to those in need."

Grayson's face lit up. "You mean…?"

Ruby smiled. "Yup! We've decided to help you guys!"

Grayson breathed a sigh of relief while Ishi smiled in appreciation. "Thank you. You all have no idea how grateful we are." Grayson thanked.

"However…" Weiss began while pointing a finger at him. "We are going to be keeping a _very_ close eye on you two."

"We get that things are rough where you come from but you can't just go around killing in self-defense all the time while you're on Remnant. A lot of people here will get the wrong idea." Jaune explained.

"We know that we can't always disarm or incapacitate our way through a fight and we've accepted that one day we may have to resort to deadly force but we're just…not there yet." Pyrrha admitted.

"Yeah. So you guys can go crazy on the Grimm but take it down a notch when you're fighting people, kay?" Nora said.

Grayson and Ishi though this over for second before nodding. The kids weren't asking for much and they had free rein to kill the Grimm so it was easy to agree with them. "Sure. We can do that. Right, Ishi?"

"Of course. We will use non-lethal tactics." Ishi agreed.

Ruby practically beamed with joy. "Alrighty! We're all in agreement!"

"So what's the game plan?" Yang asked. "We don't have any spaceships here so how do we get you guys off Remnant?"

"You know that psychotic General I was talking about earlier? He's our ticket out of here." Grayson replied with a grin. "A jumpship will be here soon to pick him up and we're currently tracking one of his soldiers who'll lead us to him. We follow her, we find Sarrano."

"And then you guys hijack his ship, right?" Nora eagerly guessed. Ren shook his head.

"Actually, we're gonna try and go for sneaking aboard. If we stole it, we'd be leaving Sarrano here and you guys do NOT want that douchebag on your planet." Grayson said.

"I guess that works out better. So, should we get this show and the road?" Jaune suggested.

"Not yet. We gotta take a little detour first." Grayson told him.

"Detour?" Blake inquired suspiciously. Although she agreed to help them, she still remained resentful for how they killed several Faunus.

"My bioprocessor is running low." Ishi informed as he tapped the metallic park of his exposed skull which glowed blue. "If I am unable to find a suitable energy source to recharge, my body will shut down… _permanently_."

"Yikes. You two _seriously_ need a break." Yang commented.

"No kidding." Grayson replied.

"Is there any way that you can recharge with Dust?" Ren inquired.

"Probably." Ishi said as Grayson began tapping some buttons on his Instinct Leash.

"We're currently following a large energy reading somewhere within this base. Whatever kind of Dust gives off that much; it's more than enough to recharge Ishi." Grayson said as he pointed towards a small gate nearby.

"Judging by the sound of it, you're talking about energy Dust." Weiss mused at she tapped her chin. "That should be sufficient enough but how exactly do we administer it to you?" She asked Ishi.

"I am unsure myself but we will cross that bridge when we get to it. For now, let's focus on making our way to the source." Ishi advised.

"Then what are we just standing around here for? Onward-ho, everybody!" Ruby excitedly declared as she pointed to the gate. "We've got outer space relatives to help!"

"Let me start it off fer ya!" Grayson joined in with a smile. What happened next blew everyone off their feet. Grayson flung out his hand and a whip of blue colored light shot out of the device he wore on the back of his hand and wrapped itself around the gate! Everyone's jaws fell open in amazement while Ruby's eyes widened so much that they threatened to pop out of her skull and sparkles danced around her eyeballs.

Grayson yanked backed on whip and the gate flew off its hinges! Grayson turned towards the teams with smug look on his face. "Pretty kick-ass, eh? Feel free to give me a round of applause whenever you feel like it-"

 _WHACK_

What Grayson failed to notice was that the force at which he yanked the leash back sent the gate flying towards him and slammed into him with so much force that it sent the space pirate tumbling across the ground! Everyone immediately rushed over to him after shaking off the initial shock and noticing that he had no aura at all. Ishi stood where he was, completely indifferent to what happened. Grayson was pretty much asking for it.

"Gray! Are you okay?" Ruby said, stricken with immediate concern.

"OWWW! _MOTHERFUCKER!_ ARRRRRGGH!" Grayson howled in pain as he clutched his arm. Not just his arm but the whole right part of his body hurt.

"Is your arm broken?" Blake asked.

Grayson wearily sat himself up. "I've been through worse." He suddenly hissed in pain as he clutched the area where that pig Grimm nailed him earlier. "On second thought…" He removed his hands from his thigh to reveal a makeshift tourniquet that was now soaked in his blood. It slipped off to reveal a nasty gash running across his thigh.

"Oh my goodness!" Pyrrha gasped, "Did a Grimm do that!?"

"Damn straight. We ran into a whole bunch of the little bastards earlier. They all looked like warthogs." Grayson replied as he tried to block out the pain.

"Sounds like you encountered a pack of Boarbatusks." Ren identified as he took a close look at Grayson's wound. "Those are especially tenacious."

"Yeah, I kinda figured that when they tried to carve me up like fuckin' turkey." Grayson sarcastically grumbled. Ren began to tie the tourniquet back on on and made it tighter so Grayson wouldn't lose anymore blood.

"Wow, so you guys really don't have Auras where you come from…that's pretty heavy." Nora said in disbelief.

"Am I supposed to know what that is?" Grayson wondered.

"Auras are a manifestation of our souls. It's like a shield that forms over your body and protects you from harm. Everyone on Remnant has one." Jaune explained, having learnt it from Pyrrha.

Grayson looked at Jaune incredulously. "Okay, I'm willing to believe a lot of things but that sounds like pure-"

"They're telling the truth." Ishi spoke, confusing Grayson.

"I've done a full scan of each of you. You all have some form of biological protective barrier surrounding each of you." Ishi said as he looked at the Huntsmen and Huntresses top to bottom.

"Duh!" Nora exclaimed.

"So that whole scanning thing you have…does it let you see through clothes?" Yang joked with a lecherous grin on her face.

"Yaaaaang! Quit it!" Ruby whined in embarrassment. A thought entered her head and her face instantly went red. She looked to Ishi while covering herself. "Y-y-you don't have that, right?"

"I do not." Ishi answered. Ruby breathed a sigh of relief.

"Well, if Ishi knows it's true then I believe him." Grayson admitted. "Sorry for doubting you guys."

"Don't sweat it." Yang reassured him as he helped him up. "But for the record, you should stick close to us, big guy. You two ain't gonna last long here without an Aura."

"For the record, we handled ourselves just fine for our first visit." Grayson said confidently as he unslung his weapon from his back mounted holster. Ruby gawked at the four barreled shotgun-like firearm clutched firmly in hands.

"OOOOOOOOOH! WHATISITWHATISITWHATISIT!?" Ruby frantically asked as she zipped up to Grayson and eyeballed the weapon.

"This here's my pride and joy: Boneduster. This baby can fire 4 shells at the same time and when it's overcharged, it fires a superheated shockwave so powerful it can vaporize almost anything it hits." Grayson informed.

"SO COOOOOOOOL!"

"Yeah but it's not as cool as Ishi's rifle. It fires guided bullets." Grayson told her as he pointed at Ishi. They cyborg instantly felt Ruby's hyperactive gaze shift to him and she was upon him in seconds. "YOU CAN SHOOT GUIDED BULLETS?! HOW?!"

Ishi gave Ruby a confused. He never met anyone so interested in weapons so it felt strange yet oddly comforting to interact with someone like Ruby. He relented. "It's actually not as complicated as you would first believe it to be." Ishi began as he started to inform Ruby of the inner workings of HeadHunter.

"Bit of a gun nut, isn't she?" Grayson said to Yang.

"Gray, I can tell you stories." She smiled.

"So you mentioned something about 'overcharging' your weapon. I guess that's kinda like how our weapons work?" Jaune inquired.

"Sorta but none of them can transform into melee weapons like yours. Up close and personal weapons kinda got phased out years ago." Grayson answered.

"Phased out!?" Nora gawked. She then brought out her signature weapon, Magnhild, and transformed it into its warhammer configuration. "I beg to differ! There's no way you can phase out something _this_ awesome!" She said proudly while striking a pose with her weapon.

"Yeah!" Ruby joined in after Ishi had finished telling her everything about HeadHunter. She whipped out Crescent Rose and struck a pose like Nora did. "Remnant's got the best weapons!"

"No argument here. But gotta know: how do you even lift those things?" Grayson pondered as he pointed to their weapons.

"Most of them are made of lightweight metals." Nora chirped.

"But it's mostly because we drink milk! Gives you strong bones!" Ruby said with a flex of her arms.

"I'll have what you guys are having." Grayson humorously commented, earning a chuckle from the others. Their strength mostly came from training though it was important to have calcium in your diet.

"So tell us more about that whip thing you do! That was _amazing_!" Ruby asked.

"Well, it's nothing much. It just shoots out an energy lasso that's actually pretty damn useful so far. It's called the Instinct Leash." Grayson said. Truth be told, he didn't really know much about the mechanics of it, he had just been using it to lasso enemies and pull objects down or towards him. He was going to have to experiment with it more.

"Neeeeeeat! So does everybody where you come from use it?" Ruby excitedly questioned him.

"Actually, this thing is pretty fucking illegal. This little fucker can get you locked up in a supermax prison for the rest of yer fuckin' life." Grayson informed her with a smile. Ruby was more shocked at Grayson's language than the whole prison bit.

"Uh, could you do us all a favor and lay off the F-bombs? My sister's only fifteen, ya know!" Yang scolded. Grayson raised an eyebrow and took note of the uncomfortable expression Ruby was wearing.

Grayson merely shrugged as he walked over to the open gate. "Sounds like a good age to be swearing if you ask me."

"It's….really not." Ruby said meekly as she pressed her index fingers together.

Everyone followed Grayson as they went through the repurposed mining complex. As they walked, they saw mounting evidence of the White Fang's activities: dozens of crates containing lighting and fire Dust, racks of weapons, improvised explosives and several APCs and IFVs; likely stolen from a Vale military compound. These guys were geared for _war._ The sight of their frighteningly impressive ordinance was beginning to confuse and worry Blake. Why was the White Fang stockpiling all of this equipment and what could they possibly be using it for? Did Torchwick have another secret base of operations like the one he had hidden beneath Mountain Glenn? As much as she wanted to stay and gather some clues to this, she was reminded that her friends needed to help Grayson and Ishi. When all of this was over, she was going to have to come back to this place and investigate.

Grayson pressed a few buttons on the Leash. "Looks like the energy signature is starting to go deeper into this base. As in underground." He saw an elevator that led into the mines which was behind a chain-link door. "There. That should lead us down."

"It could be dangerous from here on out." Pyrrha surmised as she analyzed the situation. "There's bound to be White Fang insurgents in here and there's no doubt they heard all the commotion topside. We'll most likely be confined to close quarters combat in tight spaces."

"Don't sweat it! We can handle it!" Nora said confidently as the others nodded in approval. Pyrrha smiled at Nora's optimism.

They walked over to the door and Grayson forcibly kicked it open but then it swung back and slammed right into his nose, sending him crumpling to the ground!

" _FUCK! SON OF A FUCKING CUNT! GODDAMMIT SHITFUCKCOCK!"_ Grayson cursed as lay on the ground, clutching his broken nose. Team RWBY and JNPR Stood with mortified expressions while Yang had managed to plug up her sister's ears with her fingers before Grayson could let loose his tirade.

"Oh dear…" Ren flatly commented.

Ishi shook his head. "Is watching you inflict accidental harm upon yourself going to be a common occurrence with you?"

"Eat my nutsack, Ishi." Grayson grumpily replied as he sat up.

Weiss shook her head as her face curled in disgust. "You are the most repulsively vulgar man I have ever had the misfortune to meet." She frowned as she folded her arms.

"Well get used to it cuz there's gonna be a lot of it, Snowflake." He replied.

Blake walked over to the chain-link door. "You could've just pushed it open, you know." She demonstrated by gently doing so.

"Oh yeah, _that's_ fun." Grayson replied with an eye roll.

Confident that Grayson was done cursing (for now at least), Yang removed her fingers from Ruby's ears. "You didn't hear what he said, did you? Because you can't say _anything_ he says."

Ruby's eyes darted left and right while looking somewhat guilty. "I tried not to."

Grayson got up and rubbed his nose. Definitely broken. Ren walked up to Grayson to check up on him…again. "Are you okay? Is it broken?"

 _CRACK_

Grayson snapped his nose back into place, causing Ren to grimace at the sound. "Not anymore." He replied as he wiped the blood off on his arm.

"Look, if you're gonna keep hurting yourself like this then you have to stay close to us, Gray. If you think about it, it could make your time on Remnant easier." Yang suggested to him.

Grayson thought this over. Though he didn't want to feel like he was being babysat, it would be nice to have his newfound allies by his side in case things got hairy.

"You think you can keep up with me?" Grayson said with a challenging grin.

"Pffffft, easy! We'll be sure to keep you on a…." She glanced down at his Instinct Leash and gave him a huge smile. _"Tight Leash!"_

This earned a collective groan from everybody.

"Your one of those pun types, aren't you?" Grayson said with a tone of resignation.

"Yup. And admit it, it was funny!" Yang said happily.

"Yeah. Reeeeeeeal funny." He drawled as he as everyone else got on the elevator.

Jaune pressed the down button and the elevator began to descend deep into the mines…albeit very slowly. "Looks like this is gonna take a while." He commented.

' _Thank you, Captain Obvious.'_ Grayson mentally complained.

Ruby inched up next to him. "Soooooooooo we were thinking that if you could tell us more about what's it's like where you come from, we could tell you all about Remnant."

Grayson and Ishi looked at each other, unsure of how to answer. "We would greatly appreciate learning more about your planet but are you sure you all want to know about the nature of our world and the Confederacy?" Ishi sternly told them.

"We kind of have a good idea of how bad it is." Blake admitted.

After a moment of deliberation, the pair nodded. "Okay. We'll tell you." Grayson accepted. "But we warn you: It's not gonna be pretty."

To be continued…

* * *

 **Damn, this was hard.**

 **I had to go through a dozen revisions of this chapter because I wanted to get the feeling and interaction right. The hardest was the Teams agreeing to help out Grayson and Ishi. I feel like I got it right by having Pyrrha and Ren tell them the hard truth and reality of being a Huntsman/Huntress since they're the most mature out of the cast.**

 **The easiest part had to be making the combination of RWBY's lighthearted nature and Bulletstorm's no holds barred, ultraviolent swear fest. Makes for some good comedy.**

 **One thing I do want to address is that while tis will be closely adhering to Bulletstorm's storyline, this will include Volume 3's darker tone. It was a huge conga line of character development for the cast (as well as numerous Break the Cutie moments) and all of that will be retained in this fic. One huge difference, as well as a bit of notification or spoilers depending on how you look at it, is that Penny, Pyrrha and Roman will NOT die in this.**

 **I'll be going on break to work on two chapters for Wrath of the Ultrabots and maybe one for Kaiju Warfare. But to give you guys a little treat, the next chapter will feature Mercury and Emerald!**

 **Don't forget to review but please don't flame.**


	8. Supplies and Betrayals

**Wow. So, uh, its been a while hasn't it?**

 **I wanted to get back to this story sooner but life and other stories got in the way. I'm sorry if i made you guys think this was dead but hopefully I can bring back my fans and introduce some new readers.**

 **Volume 6 has been stunning and mind blowing from beginning to end! It brought a fantastic ending to the Mistral trilogy and cannot wait for Atlas. I think I speak for all of us when I say that the revelations in episode 3 threw the entirety of the RWBY fandom in for a loop. Though I had to do some major rewrites, it thankfully wasn't enough to completely derail this story and I can still proceed along without any roadblocks.**

 **With that being said, welcome back to the world of RWBY: Gun Sonata!**

 **Review Time!**

 **Guest #1: It'll happen soon.**

 **Requester: It's already up!**

 **GXY-2013: That will definitely happen near the end and you'll just have to wait and see what the reactions are.**

 **Elusive Prey: Thank you for the positive review and im glad to have you back. I haven't thought about the Brother Gods yet as of this writing so it'll let me ruminate on some ideas.**

 **SilentXD7: Well I'm back and they will stay as violent and foul mouthed as ever!**

 **Kerrowe: Bulletstorm is insanely fun and you can pick it up for PS4! Grayson will go full blown lethal on the Grimm.**

 **Ronmr: Thank you!**

 **Hyde: Glad you like it!**

 **Big Smoke: Maybe. You'll have to let me think on that for a while.**

 **StormMarine: Could be possible! Need to do some major thinking about what I want to do with the Brother Gods.**

 **Guest #2: I'll admit, they could've handled it better.**

 **Bulletstorm and RWBY belong to their respective owners. I do not own either of them.**

* * *

Chapter 8

Supplies and Betrayals

PLATEAU-MINING FACILITY

1 HOUR LATER

"And there you have it!" Ruby happily finished explaining.

"That's…uh…wow." Grayson replied in stunned amazement.

For the last hour Grayson and Ishi listened to the team's information on Remnant after they had finished their explanation of Earth and the Confederacy to them as the elevator continued to go down. The two of them were quite intrigued by this world. Remnant was almost similar to Earth in many ways. It had its own technology, mythology, history, culture, society, even its own religion. The only glaring differences were The Four Kingdoms, Auras/Semblances, Dust, the Huntsman Academies, the Faunus and the Grimm.

"I'm still trying to wrap my head around these Grimm things." Grayson said as he scratched his head. Those creatures were by far the most confusing aspect about this planet. From what he and Ishi had learned, these monsters had been around on Remnant longer than anyone could remember, had forms based around animals and they were solely attracted to negative emotions. "I mean, there's gotta be some kinda rational explanation for em'."

"I do not think there is, Gray. There's something _supernatural_ about these creatures." Ishi said, remembering how he was unable to get a scan of their blood and their corpses dissipating after death.

"Their existence continues to be a mystery and there's still no concrete evidence of their origins or how they came to be." Ren stated.

"But as long as there are Huntsman and Huntresses out in the world, the Grimm don't stand a chance!" Ruby declared.

"I'll hold you to that, seeing how skilled your teammates are." Grayson agreed. "Still wondering how you're able to fight in skirts."

Ruby and Weiss looked at each other before looking at Grayson. "They're combat skirts." They said together. Nora instantly popped up between the two. "Yeah!" She said as she high fived them.

Grayson could only let out a chuckle at their enthusiasm but Ishi felt very uncomfortable with the idea of these Academies training students at such a young age to fight inhuman monsters, especially since Ruby was only 15 years old. It felt too much like they were recruiting child solders.

"So does everyone on this planet have an Aura and Semblances?" Grayson inquired.

"Any living thing with a soul can generate an Aura but Semblances are a rare case." Pyrrha explained. "They only manifest either through rigorous training, intense stress or by other means."

"Like getting hit by lighting!" Nora piped in. "That's how I got mine!"

Grayson couldn't help but feel amazed that these kids (sans Jaune) had superpowers. Whether it was super peed, shadow clones or magnetism, the little fanboy inside of him was spazzing out. Though he did have one question on his mind. "So are you kids sure it's not…you know…magic?"

The teams looked at each other for a couple of seconds and then burst out laughing. Ishi gave Grayson an odd look, prompting him to look embarrassed.

"Gray, I understand this all seems fantastical to you but everybody knows that magic is purely fictional." Pyrrha lectured after she stopped laughing.

' _Kinda redundant seeing as how almost everything about this planet should be fictional.'_ Grayson thought to himself. "Yeah, I kinda walked into that one. Anyway, thanks for tellin' us about your planet. The info's really helpful."

"No sweat! Thanks for telling us about…" Yang said as she started to trail off as she became worried. "…about the Confederacy."

Grayson nodded as he watched everyone's expressions turn grim as they looked at the floor. For the youngsters of Remnant, the Confederacy was _WORSE_ than they thought. Corruption, abuse of power, slavery, subjugation, human experimentation, mass executions, genocide, the Confederacy was absolutely _monstrous._ Compared to Atlas, they were on a whole nother technological level but solely used it for destruction and enslavement. But the scariest thing about them was that _they had discovered Remnant._ As soon as they finished helping Grayson and Ishi get off the planet, they were going straight to Ozpin and warn him about the threat the Confederacy posed ASAP.

"Isn't there _anybody_ that's opposing the Confederacy? Anybody at all?" Blake asked desperately.

Grayson scratched his chin in thought. "Well…there has been a resistance faction fighting against them for pretty long time but they've been really quiet as of late."

"I suppose it's difficult for them to fight seeing as how the Confederacy operates on a million planets." Jaune awkwardly guessed.

"Not exactly. The Confederacy has bases stationed on a scant few worlds. A vast majority of the planets in our galaxy are either dangerously inhospitable or are Gas Giants." Ishi told him.

Jaune raised an eyebrow. "Gas Giants? What are those?"

"They're large planets of relatively low density consisting predominantly of hydrogen and helium. _Nothing_ can survive on them." Ishi informed. Everybody took this information in with great interest. They didn't know there were planets like that in space or how complicated they were.

Grayson impatiently looked at the elevator controls and began banging his fist against it. "Cant this fuckin' thing go any faster?!" He angrily complained.

Yang quickly covered Ruby's ears. "Dude! What did I just say?!"

"You really need to stop with the constant swearing." Weiss scolded.

"And _you_ need to seriously ease up on the bedazzling, Snowflake. It's a dress, not a chandelier." Grayson shot back as he jabbed a finger at her clothing.

Weiss let out a quiet gasp as she grew angry and marched up to Grayson just as the elevator stopped and the doors began to open. "Now see here you-"

The elevator was suddenly bathed in a red and yellow glow as everyone looked towards the source of the light. Before them was a massive cavern filled to the brim with fire and lightning Dust crystals everywhere. It covered ground, walls and ceiling; casting a majestic glow all over the cavern. Mesmerized, the group stepped out of the elevator, taking in the sight of Dust as far as the eye could see.

"Dear diary: JACKPOT!" Nora exclaimed as she pumped her fists. Ruby looked like a deer caught in the headlights.

"So _this_ is the reason the White Fang made their encampment here." Ishi observed. Blake looked around the area in amazement. Ishi brought up an accurate point; this mine provided the insurgents with all the Dust they needed.

"No kidding. This whole mine is wall to wall Dust!" Yang agreed as she looked over dozens of crates containing vials of Dust.

Grayson plucked off one of the crystalline outcroppings of lightning Dust and inspected the shard. It slightly tingled in his palm and made some of the hairs on his arm stand up. "I don't get why you kids call this Dust. I mean, wouldn't it be easier just to call them Power Crystals?"

"That sounds utterly ridiculous. As for the reason why we call it Dust; it's because it has far more usage when it's in a refined, broken down state." Weiss explained.

"But it started out as a crystal and when you call it Dust, you get it confused with the kind that collects around your house." Grayson countered.

"Well, I kind of see your point but-"

"See? See? I just drilled a huge hole in your logic!"

"It's always been called Dust, okay?!" Weiss exasperated as she stomped her foot.

Grayson rolled his eyes. "Look, you call em' whatever you want, I'm stickin' to calling them Power Crystals. It sound better and it's a helluva lot less confusing than Dust." He said as he walked away to join Ishi.

Weiss fumed as her eye twitched in annoyance. Ruby walked up next to her. "Kinda brings you back to when we first met, huh?"

Weiss calmed herself down and sighed. "You were willing to learn about Dust back then. _He's_ doing this on purpose."

The two rejoined the group as they walked along the rocky pathway. As they headed deeper into the mine, they saw dozens of mining equipment, excavation vehicles and Dust processing machinery, no doubt repurposed for the White Fang. "Why would anybody just abandon this mine and leave all of their stuff behind?" Jaune wondered.

"There are a number of factors for that. Poisonous gasses, cave-ins, usually subterranean species of Grimm are the leading cause." Ren stated.

"Well whoever co-opted this joint certainly ain't gettin' their deposit money back." Grayson commented.

"For once, I agree with you." Weiss said. "Leaving all of this equipment here would cost the company in charge of this place millions of Lien. I mean, who would be so irresponsible to just recklessly abandon-"

"Um…Weiss?" Blake tapped her shoulder to garner her attention. Blake then pointed to the side of one of the excavators. Emblazoned on it was a stylized snowflake symbol with large captions underneath it that said, PROPERTY OF SCHNEE DUST COMPANY.

Weiss visibly deflated. "Oh." So that explained that one time her father was livid.

Ishi inspected the label. "Schnee? You own this company?"

"Technically my father owns it." Weiss corrected. "The Schnee family is the largest producers and exporters of Dust in the world."

"Now I know where the snobby attitude came from." Grayson whispered to Yang.

"She's actually gotten better." She reassured him.

Nora noticed Pyrrha had a serious look on her face. "What's up?" She asked her friend.

"Does anybody else here that?" Pyrrha asked those present and she put a hand up to her ear. "Listen."

Everyone stayed quiet and listened closely. Just around the corner, they could hear beeping noises. "That sounds familiar…"Ruby remembered.

Grayson instantly recognized what it was. "Sweet! Another Dropkit!" He ran over to the source of the beeping and disappeared around the corner as everyone followed him. Rounding the corner, the inhabitants of Remnant saw one of the strange lockers with tools scatters around it.

"Those came from the sky earlier! It almost crushed me!" Ruby exclaimed as she pointed at it.

"What exactly do these things do?" Blake asked.

Grayson smiled. "Prepare to have your minds blown…" His leash hooked up to the Dropkit an after a few seconds, it began to shine a light onto the ground and 3D printed a pile of ammo! Everyone's jaws fell to the ground.

"What and how?!" Yang shouted in disbelief.

"COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!" Ruby and Nora squealed.

"That's unbelievable!" Jaune gasped.

"Astounding!" Weiss whispered in amazement.

Ren, Pyrrha and Blake were stunned silent. This was a technological marvel that Atlas could only dream of creating.

"Yup! Thanks to this little beauty, we can rearm ourselves lickety-split." Grayson proudly explained as he pocketed the shotgun shells.

"Provided you find more of these in the field." Ishi reminded him as he collected more mags for HeadHunter. Grayson shrugged in response.

Ren continued to be gob smacked just as the others were, until a thought entered his mind. "Gray, is there a possibility that this Dropkit might create supplies for us as well? We might be in for a long journey."

"Huh….sounds like it's worth a try. Hand me one of your guns." Grayson said as he held out his hand. Ren gave him one of his StormFlower handguns and Grayson began to scan it with his leash. He smiled.

"Good news, guys! The scan checks out; looks like you're all gettin' a big pile of ammo! Just let me give Ren his share and I'll do the rest of y'all." Grayson gleefully informed them. Ruby and Nora could barely contain themselves. Everyone else eagerly awaited to have their weapons scanned and get resupplied while Jaune felt left out due to the fact that he had no firearms. Grayson pressed the rearm button but an error message popped up, causing him to frown.

"What's wrong?" Ruby asked.

"Dunno." Grayson shrugged as he looked at the screen on his leash. "Apparently it says, 'Invalid ammunition.'"

"It can't create our planet's ammo? Why do you think is the reason for that?" Jaune wondered.

"I have a theory." Ishi announced. "The Dropkit can only create ammo that's been manufactured by the _Confederacy._ Remnant obviously uses its own unique form of munitions, something an invention of Confederate design cant replicate."

Grayson nodded in agreement and handed Ren his weapon back. "Sorry, guys. Looks like you're gonna have to find another way to get yourselves resupplied."

"Don't sweat it. I'm sure we'll find more ammo. Besides, I doubt that thing can create Dust bullets." Ruby assured him.

"You use Power Crystals in your ammo?" Grayson inquired, ignoring the irritated look Weiss was giving him.

"Yeah! Regular bullets works fine on Grimm but Dust-infused rounds works much better against them. We also use dust for our homes, cars and just about everything else!" Ruby explained.

"So that leash lets you rearm whenever you find those Dropkit things?" Yang inquired.

"Yeah but you gotta earn Skillpoints first. The Instinct Leash utilizes a Skillshot System based on how efficiently you eliminate your enemies. If you dispatch your foe in a unique or stylish way, you get Skillpoints that will let you resupply your weapon." Grayson informed them.

Team RWBY and Team JNPR weren't sure what to make of it. It sounded like something out of an awesome videogame but when applied to real life, it sounded very… _disturbing._

"That's sounds…" A mortified Pyrrha began before Grayson cut her off.

"Pretty kickass, right?"

"What?! No, it's horrific!" She exclaimed. "What kind of twisted madman would implement a system that encourages sadism and dehumanizes enemies?!"

"I think you just answered your own question." Ishi said rhetorically.

Pyrrha and the others weren't sure what he meant by that but it soon began to dawn upon them what he meant: _Sarrano._ So far Grayson and Ishi were making him out to be as every bit as immoral as they described. Remnant would never invent such a grisly weapon.

"Yeah, that actually does sound pretty fucked up now that I think about it." Grayson admitted as he rubbed the back of his head.

"But like we said, you can do whatever you want to the Grimm." Nora reminded him, though even she began to doubt her own words.

Grayson nodded but then he and Ishi noticed the hard glare Blake was giving them. They avoided her gaze. An hour earlier, they learned about the Faunus from her and the daily injustices her kind went through. Many years ago, following a war between Humankind and the Faunus, they were allowed to live within the Four Kingdoms but were still heavily discriminated against. Thus the White Fang was formed and functioned as an activist organization that strived for improved relations between Humans and Faunus, as well as fought for civil rights.

But unfortunately, after a number of years, the once peaceful organization transformed into a violent terrorist cell chillingly reminiscent of the Taliban and Irish Republican Army. They began to employ radical, ruthless and deadly methods in a bid to show the world that the Faunus were superior. Because of this, the White Fang gained much notoriety and infamy Remnant. But Blake professed that they were not evil, but rather misguided as she revealed that she too was once a member but left after the group had gone astray.

Now they understood why she was so angry at them for killing those White Fang members earlier. She wanted to avoid any more Faunus deaths and she had no doubt done the math and knew that Grayson previously attained Skillpoints for killing them so horribly.

Grayson swallowed. "We should get a move on."

They all entered a tunnel ahead of them but before leaving, Pyrrha noticed the numerous claw marks all over the Dropkit before rejoining the others. The group traveled through the tunnel for a while until they came upon the exit which had been blocked off by a cave in. Luckily; there was a gate next to it that offered an alternate route.

Grayson kicked the gate down and followed another tunnel which ended at a shallow stream leading deeper into the mine. He checked his leash and showed the energy reading leading downwards. "Only way down." He said to himself as he cracked his neck in preparation.

"Wait, you can't be serious!" Weiss said, pointing to the stream.

"What's the matter? Afraid of getting a little wet?" Grayson teased.

"No but there's a better alternative to than just going down a precarious stream without even knowing what's-"

"Times up!" Grayson blurted as he hopped into the stream and slid all the way down! "WAAAAAAAAHOOOOOOOOO!" He hollered.

Everyone stared in dumbfounded confusion as Grayson disappeared from view.

"Did he really just…?" Jaune blinked.

"Well that just burns me up." Nora pouted.

"Why? That he didn't listen to my advice?" Weiss pointed out.

"No. Cause he got to go first!" Nora chirped and she jumped in after him! "WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Ishi shook his head. "Brilliant. It's like having _two_ Graysons now." He lamented as he walked towards the stream.

"I wouldn't exactly say it like that. Nora's just being herself." Ren stated as he and Ishi went down.

"Well, being a Huntress was never going to be a clean job." Ruby shrugged as she went after them. The others followed suit with Jaune and Pyrrha using their shields as makeshift boards. This left Weiss by herself. Sighing in resignation, Weiss summoned a row of Glyphs upon the stream and used them to skate her way down instead.

* * *

A lone White Fang soldier yawned as he leaned against a crate of Dust vials. The bear Faunus checked his watched and sighed in boredom. Why did he have to get stuck on guard duty? He should've been helping out the rest of his comrades outside the base, not getting stuck with probably the dumbest job on Remnant.

His mind began to wander off as he recounted the loud rumblings that shook the entire base topside. He heard chatter over the radio that a giant spaceship crashed through the moon but he shrugged it off as an earthquake and his buddies were just overacting.

Feeling the urge to bleed the lizard, he set his weapon down on the crate and went over to the stream next to him. He began to unzip his fly-

"RISE AND SHINE, BIRTHDAY BEAR!"

The bear Faunus barely had enough time to snap his head over to the left to see a burly-looking man slide down the stream, spring forth and shoulder ram him into the cave wall, knocking him unconscious.

"Heh, man really sinks into work." Grayson chuckled as he picked himself up. He checked the goon's pulse and was relieved that he was still breathing. So far he was doing well on swearing not to kill any more White Fang. Spotting a crate nearby, he emptied its contents onto the ground, picked up the mook and dumped him into the crate where he shut it closed. He looked at the vials of fire Power Crystals and knelt down to pick one up. He noticed that these all had labels on them that said, _WARNING: VOLATILE WITH A TENDENCY TO EXPLODE._

Looking down at his empty grenade belt (he forgot to grab some when he left his ship), Grayson got an idea and began slotting the vials into the holders. He heard the sounds of hyperactive laughter and turned around to see Nora come into view and splashed to a halt in the stream.

"Let's do that again!" She excitedly giggled, not caring that she was soaking wet. Ishi and Ren soon came down with her, followed by Ruby, Yang and Blake. Jaune and Pyrrha came down riding on their shields.

"I knew it!" Yang laughed as she wrung the water out of her hair. "I totally knew you guys were gonna use those as boogie boards!"

Pyrrha and Jaune blushed with embarrassment as Ishi noticed something. "We are short one person."

A row of glyphs appeared before the group and they saw Weiss gracefully skate down and hop off with a dignified posture.

Grayson scoffed. "You are such a wuss."

"Do not start with-wait. What are you doing with those Dust vials?" Weiss began before she noticed what Grayson had slung along his belt.

"Glad you asked! Since me and Ishi and gonna be on Remnant for a while, I might as well put your Power Crystals to good use." Grayson answered gleefully. "Like say, use them as makeshift firebombs!"

Weiss groaned as she rubbed her temples. At this point, this overly muscled buffoon was going to drive her insane and some of her friends were taking some form of amusement from all this. Checking his Leash again, Grayson looked to the long tunnel before the group, lined with dimly lit lightbulbs and several crates along the walls.

"So is that energy reading pointing us in the right direction?" Ren inquired.

"Yup. With any luck, that energy Power Crystal we're looking for should be just up ahead." Grayson affirmed.

"Then let us be on our guard. We are not safe down here." Ishi cautioned as he and the others went down the tunnel.

* * *

PLATEAU-SECRET WHITE FANG BASE

"I think I'm going to be sick…" Emerald gagged.

"If you're gonna puke, don't do it all over me." Mercury said as he stepped away from her.

Earlier the two of them had arrived at the site of the first crashed ship but it was now at the bottom of the plateau in a flaming heap, which left exploring it out of the question. They did, however, notice the multitude of footprints that led away from the crash site and followed them to one of the White Fang's weapons caches and were greeted with the bloody sight of dozens of mutilated White Fang soldiers.

"Do you think the Grimm did this?" Mercury asked her.

"No." Emerald confirmed after composing herself. "I've seen victims of Grimm attacks before. None of these bodies have any bite marks or claw marks."

Inspecting the bodies, Mercury could see that she was right. He noticed several spent rounds around the area and picked them up. They were shotgun shells and sniper rounds but were certainly unlike anything produced by any Kingdom. They were almost as big as his hands!

"I think it's safe to say our extraterrestrials visitors had a little run in with our pals." Mercury mused as he looked at the footsteps leading into the encampment.

"Please tell me you don't seriously think its aliens." Emerald shook her head.

"Emerald, we just saw a spaceship the size of a freakin' city rip straight through the moon. What part of that doesn't sound like aliens to you?" Mercury astutely pointed out.

"Look, all I'm saying is-" Emerald saw a Bullhead quickly nearing towards them out in the distance. "Damn, we've got company."

"Woah, easy there. It's one of ours." Mercury calmed her as he noticed the White Fang insignia spray-painted on its side. The bullhead landed near them as several White Fang stepped out.

"Did Adam send you guys?" Mercury asked them as he and Emerald walked over.

"Yeah. We're here to check up on one of our hidden bases." A rabbit Faunus explained. "Didn't expect to see you two here, though."

"We're investigating those ships that fell from the sky earlier. Orders from Cinder." Emerald informed. "What's been going on back in Vale?"

"The whole city's still a wreck. Adam told us to head over here to see if this place is still in one piece and bring back any supplies we can use." A pig Faunus told her.

"OH MY GODS! WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED?!" A gecko Faunus shouted as he saw the mutilated corpses of their comrades.

"You got whoever came out of the ships to blame. Apparently they razed this base long before we came here." Emerald answered.

The gecko Faunus gritted his teeth in anger. "Damn! Those alien bastards are gonna pay for shooting up our brothers and sisters!"

"I can't believe it. We're actually being invaded by aliens!" A lamb Faunus gasped as she shook with fright.

"I know, right? Totally pulled the wool over my eyes! No pun intended." Mercury agreed, earning an unamused look from her.

"Hey guys! I got Adam on short wave communications!" A mouse Faunus announced as the others hurried back to the Bullhead. This left Mercury and Emerald to discuss their next course of action.

"So what's the plan now? I mean, where exactly do we go from here?" Mercury pondered. There wasn't anything eft for them to search out and the White Fang could take it from here.

"Orders are orders." Emerald firmly stated as she folded his arms. "Cinder told us to investigate the crash sites, learn anything important and then report back to her. Do you have enough Dust in those boosters for the trip to that other ship?"

Mercury knelt down and checked his prosthetics. "Got enough fuel in the tank for another trip but then that's it; I'll be tapped out. Might make the trip back to Vale a long one."

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it." Emerald assured. She looked at the dead bodies and felt uneasy once again. "What do you think should we do if we run into anybody from the ships?"

"You mean the aliens." Mercury corrected.

"I'm not dignifying that." Emerald shot him down.

Mercury gave it some thought. "She did say the choice was up to us…" He and Emerald saw the squad of White Fang walking back over to them. "That was quick. What did Adam have to say?"

The White Fang said nothing and _began aiming their weapons at them!_

Emerald and Mercury jumped back with shocked expressions! "What the hell are you doing?!" Mercury demanded.

"Sorry kids." The rabbit spoke as an evil smile spread across his face. _"New orders."_

BUDDA BUDDA BUDDA BUDDA BUDDA BUDDA

The two barely managed to doge the gunfire and ran towards a dismantled car for cover! Ducking behind it, Mercury and Emerald hunkered down to avoid the hail of bullets as it began to chip away at the vehicle. Emerald carefully peered out of one side of the car and saw one of them reach for a grenade around his belt!

Gripping the explosive in his hand, the mouse Faunus was just about to pull the pin when a guttural shriek came from behind the White Fang. They turned around and saw to their horror was a Deathstalker crawling right towards them! They fired wildly at the Grimm but its shots passed right through it! Its stinger shot towards the lamb Faunus and she shrieked in terror as it went through her abdomen! But there was no pain and no blood. It just went through her body like it was a hologram!

The Deathstalker vanished into thin air, confirming that is was indeed an illusion. As the White Fang stood in flabbergasted silence, one of them noticed that their targets were no longer behind the car…

* * *

Running through the steel corridors of the base, Mercury and Emerald stopped to catch their breaths. The use of Emerald's Semblance had bought them enough time to flee and locate a hidden door that led them into the repurposed mining facility. The two of them felt a rush of emotion as the situation began to weigh down on them.

"He betrayed us….Adam…" Emerald whispered in shock, still rattled from the experience.

" _Fuckin' horned emo asshole_!" Mercury raged as he slammed his fist on the wall. "If I ever see him again, I'm ramming that sword of his _FAR_ up his ass!"

Emerald was beginning to wonder if this was payback for brutalizing everyone at Adam's camp after their somewhat successful ambush on the Fall Maiden. Then, she realized something that brought fear to her heart and great concern over the woman she looked up to.

"We have to go back!" Emerald urgently told her partner.

"Go back? We can probably take on a few of them but those guys are armed to the-"

"No! We have to get back to Vale and help Cinder! If Taurus sent these guys after us, then he's going to go after Cinder as well!"

Mercury seemed oddly unconcerned. "So? I ain't worried."

"What?!"

"Cinder can handle herself just fine. She may only have half of the Maiden's power but she's no pushover. Remember how she wiped out all those White Fang goons when we went back to Adam's camp? Or how she held her own against Ruby when she caught her at the CCT tower? She's gonna be just fine! I'm sure that once we wrap this mission up and come back to Vale, Cinder's gonna have Adam on his knees begging for forgiveness." Mercury assured.

"You've got a point…" Emerald said as she looked at the ground, absorbing the facts that Mercury gave her. She then shook her head. "But we could at least warn her! I still think we should head back over to Vale and-"

"Emerald, do you remember the _last time_ we didn't listen to Cinder?"

The pickpocket paled as she remembered Cinder's words…

" _Don't think,_ _ **obey**_ _."_

"Look, if it makes you feel any better, she's got Neo to back her up. Plus, we might find something on that ship that'll help with our plans." Mercury offered.

Thinking long and hard, Emerald heavily sighed. "…Okay. But I hope you're right about this."

"Hey, I got faith in her." Mercury replied with a confident smile. "Now let's focus on getting to that ship and finding a way out of here."

Emerald noticed an empty elevator shaft. "There. We can find an exit at the bottom."

They two of them leapt towards the cables, grabbed a hold of them and began to rappel down deeper into the facility.

* * *

Traversing through the tunnels, the group of Huntsmen/Huntresses and Space Pirates finally reached the end after what seemed like forever. Before them stood a large, heavy steel door that hadn't been used in a while. The controls to open it were beside the door but had been dismantled a long time ago.

"Yang, give me a hand." Ishi requested, earning a nod from the blonde brawler. Gripping one side of the door, Yang and Ishi began to slide it open with all their might. Everyone went through the door once it was open and their eyes widened in surprise. The room they were in was a massive hanger with over a dozen Bullheads lined up in rows! Not only that, but the saw dozens of crates filled with Dust and heavy weaponry lining both sides of the walls!

"Glorious mother of shit! There's enough heavy ordinance here to take over a small lunar colony!" Grayson gawked.

"Soooooo….is this anything like what you guys saw on that trip with Professor Oobleck?" Nora asked Team RWBY.

Grayson raised an eyebrow. _'Oobleck? Like that Dr. Seuss book?'_

"Yes, but….it looks like Mountain Glenn wasn't the only hidden base the White Fang had." Blake replied.

"What do you mean by that-URGH!" Grayson asked before suddenly hissing in pain and clutching the wound on his thigh. He slumped against a railing as the others hurried over to him. "Dammit, starting to act up again."

"That needs to be stitched up immediately! You can't go on like this!" Pyrrha pointed out with great concern.

"My friend's life matters more." Grayson gruffly replied.

Ruby was becoming very worried about Grayson's condition. She wasn't a doctor but she knew that if his wound wasn't treated, he wouldn't last the rest of the trip. She frantically looked around for something that could help him and as luck would have it, she spotted a metal crate with a medical symbol stamped onto the side.

"Guys! There's some first aid stuff we can use!" She said, pointing to the crate. Ishi went over, pried it open with his bare hands and fished out several boxes of medical supplies. Pyrrha grabbed some and rushed back to Grayson.

"Don't worry; I'll get that closed up before you know it." Pyrrha assured him.

"Actually, let me do the stitches." Blake offered. "I've done it several times before when I was with the White Fang."

Pyrrha nodded and moved aside a little to let Blake work. While this was going on, the rest of the group marveled at the collection of firepower before them.

"Where do you think they got all this? Most of this is Atlesian technology." Weiss observed.

"I'm more concerned about what they were planning on doing with all of this stuff." Yang remarked as she looked over a rack of riot shields.

"It's strange…" Ruby narrowed her eyes at the Bullheads. "This is different from what we saw at Mountain Glenn. They were using that train to transport supplies but this looks like they were hoarding all of this. But why?"

"I think we should focus on bigger matters here. We can tell General Ironwood about this base after we get done helping…hold on. That's it!" Jaune realized, snapping his finger.

"What?"

"You said earlier that we would find another way to resupply during the mission. Well, we just so happen to be standing in a room chock full of ammo, Dust and other helpful gear we need for the trip!" He answered, gesturing to the hanger. "Plus, I don't think the White Fang will mind if some of their stuff went missing, know what I mean?"

Nora began bouncing up and down. "I like where this is heading!"

"A sound tactical decision, Jaune." Ishi complimented.

"Alrighty then!" Ruby clapped her hands. "Grab everything that isn't nailed down!"

"Way ahead of ya, sis!" Yang eagerly replied.

As the others went with Yang, Ishi stopped Ren and Weiss. "I need your assistance with something."

"What do you need help with?" Ren asked.

Ishi pointed to the Bullheads. "Disabling their air support. We must leave the White Fang with no means of pursuit."

"I like the way your new brain thinks!" Grayson called out as Pyrrha began to apply disinfectant.

Jaune, Ruby, Yang and Nora grabbed several army-style backpacks and began stuffing them full of ammo for each respective weapon the group had, Dust, first aid, water and MREs (Nora thought they were chocolate bars).

Ishi, Ren and Weiss were taking care of the Bullheads. Ren severed the wires underneath the controls, Weiss used electrify infused Glyphs to short out the electronics while Ishi settled for ripping off the controls and smashing his bionic fist through the consoles.

Meanwhile, Pyrrha and Blake were hard at work fixing up Grayson's wound. Pyrrha finished washing off the blood and disinfecting the wound; moving aside to let Blake properly stich it up. Thankfully, the wound inflicted by the Boarbatusk wasn't as bad as originally thought out to be but it still needed to be closed.

"Are you absolutely sure you don't want me to bring any Painkillers or Morphine along for the trip?" Pyrrha pressed.

"It's only gonna make me wonky, Pyrrha. I don't wanna get addicted to that shit." Grayson remarked. "I'll just tough it out."

"Okay, I'm going to add on another layer. Hopefully that'll fully close it up." Blake said as she started to apply more stitches to the wound.

"Thanks for everything yer doin. Means a lot." Grayson thanked her.

Blake gave him a stoic look and resumed stitching. "Don't mention it." She replied, though her tone of voice sounded like she wanted to say, "Don't mention it _ever_."

Grayson sighed. "Look, I know you're still mad about what happened earlier but I was only defending myself. I didn't know that things worked differently here or how much your people meant to you. I'm sorry. I really am." He apologized.

Blake looked at him with that same expression again for a few seconds before focusing on her job. "I _want_ to believe you."

Pyrrha was unsure of how to approach this but knew that this was between Grayson and Blake so she decided to stay out of it.

"If you don't forgive me, I fully accept that. But you gotta know that something like this was bound to happen with you. When you're forced into defending yourself, you can't pull your punches."

Blake shut her eyes as hard as she could. "I know…" she then opened them, her amber orbs now filled with sadness and reluctant acceptance. "I've just seen it happen too many times to too many Faunus."

"About that, I kinda understand what you're all going through. It's the same where I come from." Grayson glumly revealed.

Blake stopped stitching and blinked in surprise. "It is?"

"Yeah. Don't get me wrong, there's no Faunus where I come from but there's all sorts of people on Earth that are of different races, nationalities, beliefs, views…for a time, we had moved past all the bigotry for those differences and there was peace." His eyes drifted to the ground. "But then the Confederacy rose to power and they hatefucked decades of progress into oblivion."

Pyrrha and Blake listened to this with unwavering attention.

"The thing is that I've never held any sort of discrimination against those kinds of people. They were just like everyone else in my eyes." He gaze shifted to Blake. "The same goes for you and the Faunus. It doesn't matter if you have animal traits; you're just as equal as everyone else and deserve the same respect and treatment just like humans. I sympathize with you because your story about leaving the White Fang reminds me of how I left the Confederacy."

Blake was left utterly amazed by what she heard. There were few people on Remnant who shared such views about the Faunus and hearing something like this from someone who came from another planet was, to say the least, surprising. More surprising was the fact that he was right, his desertion from the Confederacy was exactly like how she left the White Fang. It was oddly uplifting to meet someone so much like her.

For Pyrrha, it comforting to see that despite Grayson's foul mouth and attitude, he was right-minded and honest.

"So….yeah. Just wanted to get that off my chest." He said as Blake finished up with the stitches and began to apply bandages to his thigh. He felt Pyrrha put a hand on his shoulder and looked at her to see her warm, proud smile. Smiling back, Grayson felt a tiny prick in his thigh and looked down to see Blake jab a needle near the wound and depress the plunger.

"Hey! I said don't need any painki-"

"I only gave you a little bit just to ease the pain. It won't impede you in any way." Blake countered.

"Oh! Uh, thanks."

"Youre welcome." Blake replied. But this time she sounded sincere as opposed to before. Grayson felt relived. It would a long way before the two of them could mend bridges, but a least it was a start. They walked over to the rest of the gang who had just finished up their jobs.

"Are you feeling better?" Yang asked.

"Way better." Grayson responded. "Didja grab anything useful?"

"You bet we did!" Ruby exclaimed. "We got backpacks for all of us filled with ammo, Dust, and other essentials!" She, Yang and Jaune wore hefty backpacks packed with said items and they held extra backpacks for the rest of the group.

"Guys? I think we're gonna have to make a second trip." Nora grunted as pulled along about 20 heavy bags across the ground.

"I didn't say take _all_ of it." Jaune corrected her.

"Are the ships scrapped?" Grayson then asked Ishi's group.

"They've all been rendered inoperable." Weiss confirmed.

"This way, the White Fang will be unable to- AAARGGGH!" Ishi suddenly collapsed to the ground in pain, Ren quickly grabbing him and setting him down next to a Bullhead as everyone crowded around.

"What's wrong!?" Ren urgently asked.

"Battery's low…nearly out of power!" Ishi groaned.

"Shit. Alright, we've stayed here long enough let's find-"

"THERE! INTRUDERS!"

Everyone looked upwards to the right to see multiple White Fang on a walkway above them, all of them armed and having no doubt heard the commotion topside.

"Ah, piss!" Grayson snarled.

Everyone ran and ducked behind the crates just as the White Fang opened fire!

"I think they're none too happy about your plan, Jaune!" Nora remarked as she readied Magnhild. Ishi quickly recovered and took aim with HeadHunter but to everyone's confusion, he just stood there looked through the scope!

"Ishi? It works best _when you pull the trigger_!" Yang shouted impatiently.

 _ **SKAPOW**_

Ishi fired his weapon but instead of killing the insurgents, Ishi guided the bullet to destroy their weapons, the bullets knocking them out of their hands and shattering them to pieces! The terrorists frantically got out their side arms but the bullet circled around and shot them straight out of their hands before finally hitting the wall. Terrified, the White Fang fled back into the entrance they came from in an effort to get as far away as they could from whatever ungodly weapon that man was using.

Everyone stared at Ishi, completely awestruck.

" _Thatgunisamazing."_ Ruby whispered.

Ishi turned to Blake. "As per our agreement, I will use nonlethal force against the White Fang."

"Thank you." She sighed in relief. A another steel door from across the hanger opened to reveal a contingent of White Fang soldiers armed with melee weapons charge right at them. Readying themselves for a close quarters brawl, the teams charged forward while Grayson and Ishi cracked their knuckles.

* * *

Reaching the bottom of the shaft, Emerald and Mercury climbed up to the open elevator door and entered a large hallway with several scattered crates of ammo and Dust. Venturing through the corridors, their ears began to pick up the sounds of shouting and fighting at the other end of the hall. Motioning Emerald to stay back and let him investigate, Mercury carefully sneaked through the open door which led out to a walkway and looked down.

"Well? What do you see?" Emerald asked.

"See for yourself. Our 'friends' are fighting the White Fang." Mercury said, pointing down.

Emerald walked over to where Mercury was. "What do you mean by friends? Who-" Emerald nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw Team RWBY and Team JNPR engaged in a brawl with the White Fang alongside two men she didn't recognize.

"What-how-when-what they hell are they doing here?!" Emerald stumbled over her words, keeping her voice down as to not garner anyone's attention.

"Guess Ozpin had the same idea." Mercury shrugged.

"Well as long as their keeping them busy, that's perfectly fine by me. Now let's get going." Emerald responded with an eye roll.

"Hold up." Mercury stopped her with a sly grin. "This just gave me an idea."

Emerald instantly knew where this was heading. "Oh no. No. No no no no no no no no no no. NO."

"Think about it. This'll make our trip a lot easier and they might even do the heavy lifting for us." Mercury suggested.

Emerald buried her face into her hands and moaned in frustration.

"Look, I think there a bunch of pain in the asses too but they'll make this mission go faster and the sooner we wrap this up, the sooner we can get back to Cinder."

Emerald removed her hands from her face and glared at Mercury. "I am going to _get you_ for this."

* * *

Slugging another one across the face, Grayson sidestepped the thrust of a bladed polearm and uppercutted his assailant Ishi meanwhile was knocking aside White Fang left and right. The others were easily taking care of the others, using non-fatal strikes to knock them out. Hearing the sounds of guns being loaded, Grayson whizzed around to see two White Fang aiming automatic rifles at him and would've perforated him if a pair of chains with blades on the end of them suddenly wrapped around the guns and yanked them away!

A green blur suddenly dived down from a walkway and kicked one of them in the face just as another blur, this time colored silver, did an axe kick to the other's noggin. They were out like a light. Grayson shook off the surprise and studied the two teens that were roughly the same age as the others.

One was a girl with brown skin, dark red eyes and mint colored short hair. Her attire was…'risqué' at best, consisting of a revealing olive green tank top, an intricate white top, white pants with brown chaps and high-heeled pumps. Her weapons appeared to be a bizarre combination of revolvers and sickles.

The other was a boy with gray eyes as well as gray hair which was both slicked back and unkempt. He wore a gray and black two-tone jacket with black pants and dark-colored shoes. He also had metal shoulder and arms guards protecting a majority of his limbs and he didn't seem to be packing any kind of weapons.

"Emerald?! Mercury?!" Ruby gasped in surprise.

"Hi, Ruby!" Emerald greeted with a playful smile. "Looks like you guys could use some extra hands."

Though Emerald was smiling on the outside, she was practically writhing on the inside.

To be continued…

* * *

 **For those of you who are wondering, no. Emerald and Mercury will not have a change of heart; they are still the same deceitful little cunts in canon. Although they may be acting all goody-goody, their façade will soon start to crack as the adventure gets crazier as it goes on and the more observant members of Team RWBY and Team JNPR will start to notice that those two aren't what they appear to be.**

 **If the backstabbing wasn't exactly proof enough, there will be massive deviations from canon and you guys can expect to see Adam vs Cinder sometime in the future! I was originally going to have the Dropkits print out ammo for the teams but I decided against it as that would make the adventure a little too easy.**

 **Probably the hardest part of this chapter was the interaction between Grayson and Blake. I knew that those two had to come to an understanding with each other and better to have it happen early than too late. I just hope I got it right with Blake and I did enjoy giving Grayson an extra layer of personality. His interaction with the others was fun to do, especially having him drive Weiss up the wall.**

 **Hope the wait was worth it!**

 **Don't forget to review but please don't flame.**


End file.
